Valentine's
by dithemo
Summary: Quinn loves Valentine's Day. She especially loves spending it with her best friends Rachel and Brittany. But on this valentine's, something happens that she, and a bunch of other people hadn't expected. The only one who can save them is a strange Latina..
1. Chapter 1

Valentine's day. The best day of the year.

Sure, she was single and everything, but that didn't stop het from celebrating. Her best friends and co-famous actresses, Brittany and Rachel, were going to spend their day off with her, having fun in whatever ways they could. Quinn couldn't help but smile as she was getting ready for lunch.

This day was going to be great.

* * *

><p>When she arrived at the dinner in the middle of the city, she was surprised to see that both her friends had already arrived; normally, Brittany would get lost one way or another and they would end up having to pick her up somewhere on the other end of town. Now, however, she was already sitting there, talking animatedly with the short brunette Quinn immediately recognized as Rachel.<p>

"Hey guys", she said, interrupting their conversation with a smile. "Happy Valentine's day!"

Brittany jumped up right away and engulfed her in a huge hug. "Happy Valentine's Quinny!", she said, jumping up and down with the smaller girl in her arms.

"Now hold on Brittany, let the girl breathe for a bit." Rachel came to her rescue, and as Brittany let loose, she hugged Quinn as well, only less… crushingly.

"Sooo", Rachel smiled as she looked at Quinn, "Did you meet Misses Right yet?" She winked suggestively at the blonde girl, who rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Rach, the day only started like, half an hour ago for me. So no, I cannot have met anyone yet. Besides, what makes you think that I would meet someone today of all days?"

Brittany and Rachel shared knowing glances, smiling secretly.

"Guys…" Quinn gave her friends a questioning look, raising her eyebrow.

Brittany was almost hopping up and down in her seat. "Can I tell her, please?" As Rachel nodded, Britt beamed and looked at the other blonde.

"Okay, so Q., you know that, like, psychic on tv, right?"

Quinn nodded. She knew her two friends were huge fans of that woman, and, according to them, everything she said happened… _As if._

"Well, we were watching her show today-" _obviously _"- and she said something about what Valentine's day would mean for certain people born under… Taurus."

Brittany looked at Quinn, apparently expecting her friend to be as enthusiastic as her about this news. Unfortunately for her, Quinn just sighed and motioned to get on with the story.

"O-kay," Brittany said, a little phased by her friend's lack of interest. "Anyway, so, yeah, about tauruses whose name begins with a – wait for it – Q!"

She and Rachel were practically smashing the table in excitement at this, but Quinn only gave them a sarcastic glare.

"Seriously guys, that's just ridiculous, for so many reasons. She probably just thought that there would be no one whose name begins with a Q, so no one will ever know if whatever fairy tale she put up for Valentine's day is true. And another thing: you both know my first name is really Lucy, so seriously, forget whatever craziness she put in your heads."

Brittany and Rachel looked at her and pouted at her words. They gave her these pleading puppy dog eyes, and Quinn just gave in.

"Fine, I'm sorry, she's amazing and I am so proud that she's made a prediction about my day. Please, DO tell me what she has to say. Let me guess, I'll find true love today?"

"YESSS!", Brittany and Rachel shouted, grinning wildly. _What a surprise_.

"Seriously Quinn, it wouldn't hurt you to be a bit more believing. Her exact words were, and I quote: 'I have seen something today, that shocked me to the core. The person involved was a Taurus, whose name begins with a Q.'" Quinn rolled her eyes, and Rachel shot her an annoyed glare but went on. "'This person will go through hardships today, but in the end, true love will come through for her. Beware, though: letting go of this person can mean letting go of love!'"

Rachel and Brittany looked at her with big eyes. Quinn just gave a small smile.

"Wow, guys, that was… Only the biggest bull I've ever heard." Her two friends looked deflated, so she quickly went to fixing it.

"Listen sweeties, I appreciate you opening me up for love, but seriously, I just want to have a happy valentine's with my best friends. And that would be you two." The girls were smiling again. "So, how about we get this party started, huh? Where are we going first?"

* * *

><p>"That'll be 25$ please. Thank you, and come again."<p>

Quinn quickly paid the clerk and hurried to the elevator. Her friends were waiting for her somewhere outside, while she was still here in the basement of the small mall. She had wanted to get them a special Valentine's day present, and was happy when she had seen the psychic Madame whatsherface's manual in the book store.

The basement was obviously the least popular place around here, she thought as she noticed how little people were downstairs. It was understandable, though. All that was down here was a book store and the dirtiest toilet ever.

As she entered the spacious elevator – _larger than some of the shops up in this place_ – she couldn't help but smile as she thought about her friends' reactions to her book. They'd probably accept it as her apology for not being very enthusiastic about their big discovery this morning.

She was smiling to herself a little as she checked around the elevator. A couple of obnoxious teens was making out against the back wall, with some businessman next to them who was on the phone with someone that must have been extremely important, seeing as he was loud enough to be heard upstairs.

The rest of the people was also pretty normal. Some other friends shopping, an older couple fighting – _what a way to spend Valentine's day_ – and a small hooded figure in the corner.

_A boy? No, a girl, must be a girl. Wauw, she's almost invisible. And looks like she's really trying to be too._

Quinn kept staring at her, and was surprised when the girl turned to her and smiled shyly before returning her focus to the door in front of her. Quinn couldn't get the girl's eyes out of her mind.

_Oh a Latina. She's seriously pretty, why would she be hiding? She looked kinda sad… Ah well, totally not my problem._

When the doors finally started closing, Quinn was happy when she felt the elevator start moving. She couldn't wait until she was back with her friends.

Unfortunately for her, it would take a while before she could see them again…


	2. Chapter 2

A loud rumbling was around them, like a huge earthquake. She thought she could hear alarms go off somewhere around her, but wasn't sure. The elevator's lights went out, and she could feel that whatever was holding the thing up let go, as a snapping sound was heard and they crashed down a couple of feet, causing everyone to fall on top of each other, screaming, hanging onto anything for dear life.

Quinn fell down as well and in her panic didn't even think about putting up her arms to break her fall. She was in shock, didn't know what was happening. She didn't even notice two slender arms slid around her waist and pulled her on top of someone, effectively breaking her fall and hugging onto her as everything around them kept shaking.

And then, as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped.

The shaking subsided and all that could be heard now was the heavy breathing of the people around her. Quinn looked around to see the dark-haired girl looking around her, obviously startled as well.

_She saved me… And she's still hugging me… Oh wait, I'm actually hugging her back as well._ She thought, as she noticed that her own arms had found away around the shorter girl that was cradling her. _What the hell happened?_

"What the hell happened here?" She heard someone yell. It was the business guy, he had crawled up already and used his phone to light up the other's faces.

Other people started getting up as well, stumbling over each other, and they all started talking… at the same time. Quinn and the girl got up as well, the blonde accepting the brunette's help before she herself looked around her to take in the damage done.

The elevator, for as far as she could see in the dim light of the guy's phone, was a wreck. Some of the metal panels had moved, the floor wasn't exactly straight anymore, and the ceiling looked like it was barely holding up anymore.

She looked around her some more, and saw that some people weren't getting up. One of them was yelling at her friend, but Quinn couldn't really catch it due to the noise other people were making. The older couple's man was beating at the door, apparently thinking that that would get the elevator to work again, at the same time ignoring his… wife?, who was also screaming some panicked things at her husband.

Quinn leaned back against the crooked wall and rubbed her temples. She felt like crying, she thought she had a migraine coming up just because of the noise those people were making, she didn't know how the hell she would get out of there and Britt and Rach should be worried sick right now. _God, if only I could call them or something_, she thought, before she mentally slapped herself. This was the freaking 21st century, everyone had a phone, including her, and NOW she thought about this.

She quickly took her phone out of her pocket and started calling Rachel, knowing she would be the most likely person to pick up.

_No signal? You have got to be kidding me!_

She was apparently not the only person to think that, because at the same time, obnoxious business dude started shouting as well.

"This can't be serious! I was in an important conference call, and now I can't even contact my secretary to postpone my meetings. What the hell-"

He had apparently intended to go on with his rant, joined by the others who were crying and screaming even more loudly, as if that was the way to save everyone, when someone suddenly shouted over the rest of the group.

"ALL OF YOU, BE QUIET!"

The group's noise died down as they looked at the small Latina, that had pushed her hood aside as she spoke up. They looked at her in surprise, some with tears in their eyes, some-

"I'm sorry, little girl, but maybe you didn't exactly notice the situation we're in here." Obnoxious business guy, of course. "Be quiet while the grown-ups try and think of a way out of here, okay?"

The girl's expression remained calm at his words, and she tilted her head up confidently as she answered.

"No, I believe it would be better if you were quiet here sir." She had said it so calmly and seriously that the man looked perplexed. "The 'grown-ups', as you call yourself, a lot like everyone else in this place, have not been thinking at all, otherwise we would have been out of here already."

She stepped a bit more to the middle of the elevator and raised her voice a bit.

"Listen up everyone, here's what we're gonna do now. First of all, does anyone of you have a signal on their phone?"

Everyone started talking at the same time again. "No, not at all, I've tried calling anyone, but-", "No, oh my god, I like tried a lot but no one-", "I think I said earlier that I don't-", "No, we're never getting out of here-"

"STOP! Let's try it differently. Everybody stop blabbering and breathe… Okay, now, if you have a signal, raise your hand, otherwise just nod no. No talking, please!"

Quinn nodded that she couldn't reach anyone either, and looked around to see the others do the exact same thing. The tension had gone down a little bit already, even though she could still see a panicked expression in a lot of eyes.

"Okay then, that's too bad. Check your phones every once in a while. You should make a message already, saying that there are-" She counted "- 11 people still stuck in an elevator in the basement of the mall. Prepare that message now, so that when you have a signal for even only one second, you can at least send an SOS."

She looked around her sternly, her arms crossed, waiting until everyone had done what she had said. This time, no one gave some kind of response. The business man waited the longest, but even he realized that this was the best thing to do.

Quinn quickly pulled out her phone an prepared the message as well. She felt like crying as she saw the picture of her two friends as background, but she decided she shouldn't – the last thing the Latina needed right now was another crier.

When everyone had finished typing, they looked up at the girl expectantly, waiting for what they should do now. The girl started talking again.

"Okay, now that that's settled, who here has gotten hurt by the crash?"

The two that were still on the floor lifted there hands right away, and some others with apparently only minor injuries did so as well. All in all, 5 out of 11 people seemed to be hurt.

Quinn checked herself as well, but couldn't find anything wrong with herself. _I should thank that girl later. She really saved me just now._

"Alright, you three-" she pointed at Quinn and two other girls who were unharmed, "you will take care of them. Take some clothes to use as bandages. It's hot as hell in here anyways."

She took off her own sweater as an example and threw it at Quinn, leaving her in a long-sleeved plaid shirt.

Quinn caught it and resisted the urge to smell the sweater. _Hold it tiger, no sniffing a stranger's clothes, no matter how extremely beautiful said person is. I mean, seriously, her body should be illegal._ She focused again as she saw some others take off clothes as well and went over to the wounded people with the other two girls.

"You two then", the girl said to the businessman and the older couple guy, "you'll help me try and open this thing up."

The business guy, who had looked anxiously at the others, apparently debating on whether he should give up his fancy vest or not, was pleased when she called him, hoping he wouldn't lose his expensive clothing this way. He rushed over to the girl's side, and reached out his hand.

"Frank Monroe, CEO of State of Mind Empire." He shook the other man's hand as well.

"Nice to meet you sir, I'm Bill Willis, and that one over there is my wife, Mary. She's hurt her arm."

The Latina rolled her eyes at the completely useless information. Frank then turned to her.

"And you are…?"

The Latina answered reluctantly, and noticed that the blonde girl she had caught earlier looked back at them, waiting for her answer.

"Santana", she answered, more to the other girl than to the two men in front of her. "Shall we get started now then?"

"Yeah, yeah sure, but… How exactly do you plan to do this?", Bill asked.

"If I may suggest something," Frank. "I think we should try going through the ceiling, that would probably be the most… sensible thing to do, and I've seen it done in movies and everything."

"Well," Santana answered to this, visibly annoyed, "I sincerely doubt that will be the most… _sensible_ thing to do, _Frank_, because if you look up, you can see that the ceiling is bending over because of the weight it has to carry, meaning most likely that something has come down on top of the elevator. Trying to do anything to the ceiling would probably cause the ceiling to crash completely, and kill us all."

Frank looked up at her words, and started rubbing his hands nervously.

"Right, okay then. So ehm… what do you suggest, Santana?"

"We'll open the door.", she said, as if it was the simplest thing to do.

"I tried that earlier," Bill shoots in, "it didn't budge."

Santana rolled her eyes. "No, Bill, you knocked on the door and then expected it to slide open in some kind of magical way."

Bill looked as self-conscious as Frank by now. "So, how-"

"Try and find something we can use as a lever. We'll shove it in between the doors and try to push it open. The other two will grab the doors the moment we get them to open just a little bit, and then try to open them up completely."

"Right, yeah", "okay yes, we can do that, but… What will we use as lever?"

Santana looked around her at that. She didn't really know. Could she use some kind of piece of the elevator itself? Quinn saw her looking around and finished up the wound on the older woman's arm as she saw something that might help. She stood up and went to tap Santana, who was now intently looking at the railing on the other wall.

"Hey", Quinn said, as Santana turned around. "How about this?" She showed her the large umbrella with the steel tip.

Santana looked at her and smiled. _A gorgeous smile_, Quinn though as she smiled back. "Thanks, that would be great! How did you know-"

"Oh, yeah, I was kinda following your conversation, sorry. I figured you could use some – actual – help." At that she looked at the two men, who were dumbly staring at the door now.

"Yeah, thanks a lot. So…What's your name?", Santana asked, as she looked into the blonde's eyes. Even in the little light that came from their phones, she could still see that the blonde had gorgeous brown-ish eyes.

"Quinn, I'm Quinn." The blonde smiled as she locked eyes with Santana, getting lost in her dark brown eyes.

They kept staring at each other, until Santana decided to break their trance.

"So, I should, ehm… The umbrella." Santana mumbled as she looked away.

"Yeah, and I, erh… The wounded you know." Quinn mumbled back, and she looked at the girl again to hand her the umbrella. The Latina tried to take it without watching, and grabbed Quinn's hand as she did. A shot of electricity went through them, and they looked at each other again, holding their breath.

Santana quickly blinked twice as she turned around and hurried to the door. Quinn kept staring at her a bit longer, but went back to helping the wounded as well, glancing at the brunette as she worked.

_What the hell was that?_

Santana directed her attention to the two guys again, trying to forget what had happened between her and the beautiful blonde.

"Okay, two of us have to pull, one has to push the umbrella in between the doors. Who will-"

"I'll do the umbrella!", Frank almost shouted, apparently not too eager to put in a lot of force trying to get the doors to open.

Santana rolled her eyes at this, but she didn't see any reason to disagree.

_It's probably best if he only does the umbrella part. This guy looks like he can't even open a freaking pickle jar. I just have to be careful with my hand, it seriously hurts like hell. Should I force him to- Ah, no, never mind, my hand's probably not that bad anyways._

She put herself in place next to the left door, as Bill positioned himself at the right. Frank started pushing at the tiny gap in between the two, trying to shove the tip of the umbrella in between. When he finally got the tip in, he pushed in further, so that the umbrella wouldn't just simply break when he tried to open the doors a bit more.

When it was finally in far enough, he started levering it to the left side, enlarging the gap. When it was big enough for Santana and Bill to put their fingers in, he kept it steady while the two of them tried to get a good grip on the doors.

"Okay Bill, on my count. 3 – 2 – 1 – PULL!"

The two of them pulled like crazy, the doors started sliding just a little bit at first, not even inches at a time, until at some point the doors suddenly gave way and slid open completely, throwing both of them against the wall.

Santana winced at the pain her hand and her back caused her, and started coughing as dust greeted the group.

When the dust cleared, Santana and Bill got up, as did everyone else, to look at what had before been the basement of the mall. What they saw there now, was not the sight they had left less than an hour earlier…


	3. Chapter 3

They all stepped closer to the door and stared into the hallway, their eyes wide open in shock. Whatever they had expected when the elevator had broken down, this was not it. If they still had the hope that it was only the elevator that was affected, and that the rest of the building would still be fine, that hope left them completely now.

"H… How could this have happened?" Frank was the first one to speak up.

The others looked at him for a moment, before returning their attention to the surreal sight before them. In the dim lights of their cell phones, they could see that the already small hallway had crumpled. The ceiling was only barely there anymore, rubble was lying on the earlier perfectly white floor. The wall to their left was still mostly intact; cracked, probably, but at least it was still standing up straight.

The other wall, though, was no more. The several shops' glass windows had not been able to carry the weight of whatever fell on top of them and had buckled under the pressure, leaving the hallway with huge chunks of brick and rubble, parts of ceiling and wall and just about anything that wasn't there normally.

It was like a warzone, what you would imagine to see when a bomb exploded.

It was not something you would expect to see in a mall. Not something you would expect to be caught up in in real life.

Everyone was waken up from their daze again by a thud on the floor, perceived extra loudly because of the complete silence in the ruins, causing all of them to quickly look around.

One of the girls that had earlier helped Quinn to take care of the wounded had slumped down and started crying now.

"How are we ever getting out of here now? Everything's destroyed! All the people that were in there…"

At that the group's heads went back to the hallway. Before they went into the elevator, there were still a few people out there. The clerks in the now inexistent shops? Those few late shoppers?

"Oh my god…" The teens started shaking heavily and crying as well. Nobody in the small space could fathom the idea that people they had seen only a little while before could have died… That _they_ could have died as well, if they hadn't stepped into the elevator.

Frank tried to be positive about that. "Well… Eh… At least… At least we've survived so far, right? Look on the bright side, we're still al-"

"BUT FOR HOW LONG?" The friend of the girl crying on the floor cried out, tears streaming down her face. "We're stuck down here! The elevator isn't working, we're in the basement of a building that can come down upon our heads any second now, and our phones don't even work so that we can know we're still alive! We're screwed! We may live now, fine, but what if we run out of oxygen, huh? Two of us are in serious pain-" she pointed at two of the earlier hurt ones that were standing up, but leaning hard against the wall for support. "- and are bleeding like hell. We'll never get out of here!" With that, she went to her friend and hugged her for dear life, crying her eyes out.

The others began panicking at this as well. They started screaming again, Frank tried to be in some way positive but did more damage than good, Bill and his wife and the two teens had gotten to the floor as well, hugging and crying.

Quinn just stood there in a trance. _I'm never getting out of here. Rach, Britt,… I'll never see them again… I'll never see anyone again!_

She started crying as well and wanted to just fall down, to never stand up again. But when her legs let out, she was once more caught by slender, tan arms.

Santana stabilized the girl and pulled her back up straight, forcing her to look into her eyes.

When it looked like Quinn wouldn't fall down again, Santana quickly cupped her cheek and wiped away some tears with her thumb. She whispered to the blonde. "Just trust me, okay. You'll live, and get out of here. I'll make sure you do." With that, she flashed her a quick smile, and the blonde couldn't help but sigh and nod. This raven-haired girl would be her only hope in this freaking cave.

At this, Santana turned her attention to the frenzied group and stepped up a bit.

"EVERYONE! That's enough…"

They all stopped shouting for a bit at her voice, but they didn't keep their silence for very long.

"What the hell do you think _you_ have to say, huh, little girl?" Bill's wife Mary was going into an angry panic-rant. "We are stuck here in this hell-hole, pretty much left to die, and none of your silly ideas can get us out of here! Give it up, girl! You're no freaking superwoman!"

The others looked up at Santana expectantly, and when she didn't answer right away, most of them went back to a more silent sobbing, some mumbling to themselves with fear in their eyes.

"You're right…" Santana's whisper might not have been heard very clearly, but everyone looked up again at the sound of her voice.

Quinn looked at the Latina. She had let her head fall down after that woman, _Mary or something_, told her off, but after her quiet whisper, she could see her clasp her hands into fists and lift her head up sharply, looking everyone else straight in the eye.

"You're right", Santana said again, this time louder. "I'm no freaking superwoman. Well, congratulations on noticing that. What gave it away, the fact that I don't have a freaking costume and mask?"

She glared at the group, making them uncomfortable under her gaze.

"So. Friggin'. What." She crossed her arms, the others watched her every move.

"So what, people? I know I'm no superwoman or whatever. But that doesn't mean I want to rot away in a place like this! You all want to get out of here, right?" She waited for the nods, some slowly, some very eager. "Then we're at least gonna _try_ getting out of here. I mean, seriously, who the hell waits for death to come and get them? This place is not the end of the line? Do you really think that the only way for us to go up right now is through an elevator? Get real! This may be the 21st century, but that doesn't mean technology is all we are!"

The group looked at her, mostly unbelieving, but still with a little hope in her eyes. Quinn already trusted her with everything she had anyways, and decided to support her in this as the others fell silent.

"I agree with Santana. There have to be some staircase left, right?" She looked pleadingly into the girls eyes, and Santana nodded. She was a bit surprised by the help she was getting from Quinn, but she would definitely take it… In this situation.

"Yeah…", Santana said a bit more huskily than she normally would have. "Yeah, that's right."

She unlocked her eyes from Quinn's and diverted her focus back to the other people, regaining a bit of her earlier anger.

"Listen up, you all. Right now, is where you choose to love or die. And I think it's safe to say you all choose to live." She didn't even wait for nods at this one.

"So here's what we're gonna do: there are two staircases in the basement. One at the direct end of this hallway, another one for staff and security in a corridor to the left. One goes up into the building, the second leads outside directly. At least one of them should be open. Maybe they won't go up completely, but they may give us a bigger chance than to stay here like trapped mice."

She stepped a bit closer to the group, letting go of her anger, but still making stern eye contact with all of them.

"So stop the crying, and stand the hell up. Or I will go all Lima Heights Adjacent on yo' asses, and you all don't wants that, do ya?"

All of them nodded that they didn't and made to stand up. Most of the people weren't all that hurt, but there were two very doubtful cases. Santana went over to them were they were still laying on the floor. Frank joined her pretty soon. She was going to ask them something, when Frank shot in.

"Yeah, I don't think you two should come, okay?"

Santana opened and closed her mouth once, not believing what he had said. The two women cowered on the floor and obviously wanted to cry again. It pissed Santana off.

She quickly pushed Frank against the wall, surprising him, and put her arm against his neck. Shifty, fearful blue eyes made eye contact with furious brown ones.

"Now listen here, asswipe. There is no fucking reason for us not to bring these people along. They're in the same situation as the rest of us, off even worse I might add, and they're coming with us, m'entiendes?"

She turned her attention back to the two women on the floor, keeping Frank in check at the same time.

"What are your names? And tell me your injuries while you're at it."

"I'm Jill, the blonde girl – ehm – Quinn, said I probably dislocated my shoulder. She put it back for me already. It still hurt, but I'll be fine to walk, I think."

Santana nodded and turned her head toward the two friends that had nursed the wounded earlier. "You two: help her up, please, and stay close to her as we walk, 'kay?"

The girls nodded and shot up to help Jill. After that, Santana turned to the other one.

"And you are?"

The woman was shaking in fear, even when Santana had dropped her angry glare for a bit and tried an encouraging smile.

"I… I'm Fran, but I… I'm afraid I… My leg… it's broken."

She started sobbing hard, looking at Frank. Quinn and Santana both understood what she was so afraid of, and Quinn went to the woman to comfort her. Santana smiled at this, and then turned her attention back to Frank.

"Listen up, loser, I'm gonna make this very simple on you. You have two options." She let go of him for a bit, shaking her right hand around as she did. _Shit, that fucking hurt. I was hoping it would have bettered by now_._ Fuck it, it doesn't matter, on with the show._

She stepped back and crossed her arms, her eyes never leaving Frank's.

"Option one: you are going to help this woman throughout the way. You will carry her on your back the whole time, and you will do everything in your power to make sure she doesn't cry again, entiendes?"

Frank was starting to feel a bit more cocky again now that the girl had let go of him. He straightened his vest and pulled up his tie again. "And, eh… What is I refuse?"

Santana smirked at this remark and slowly started walking closer to him, her voice a barely audible whisper that only Frank (and Quinn) could understand.

"Then you take option two: I'll actually _go_ all Lima Heights Adjacent on your ass, I'll use your own fancy tie and vest to tie you up to this freaking thing, and we'll leave you here to die. But of course, not before I break one of your legs, and maybe one of your nuts as well. Left or right, that's your choice."

She backed up again, pleased to see the look of complete fear in his eyes.

"So, what's it gonna be, boy-o?"

He was shocked out is his daze at her words, and immediately went over to Frank, lifting her up on his back.

"See, that wasn't that hard, now, was it?"

Santana looked around her for a bit. Everyone was standing up straight in the elevator, as ready as they'd ever be. She went up to were they had opened the doors. There was a small height difference between the fallen elevator and the hallway, so she had to push herself up on the basement floor. She flinched as she put pressure on her right hand, but she was pretty sure no one had seen the pain on her face as she pulled herself up.

Quinn, however, had been watching her closely as she went up, and even though she couldn't see the pain on Santana's face, she did see the way her right arm almost collapsed from underneath her, and how her back muscles tensed all at once. _She can't be… Why the hell hasn't she taken care of herself? Maybe it's just a sprain, but still!_ She wanted to say something about it, but at that time Santana had already turned around, towering above the others.

"Okay guys, we're leaving now. Try walking as lightly as possible. Crying is forbidden – like completely. And remember the cell phone thing: as soon as you have any type of connection, send the sos-message. We clear?"

Everybody nodded. They were so ready to get out of this elevator.

Santana smirked and cocked her head to the side.

"Let's get the hell going then!"


	4. Chapter 4

They had been trapped here for over four hours now. Getting through the hallway to a staircase seemed easy enough and it would only have taken them 10 minutes to get to the other end in a normal situation, but unfortunately, right now the situation was anything but normal.

There were big chunks of rubble lying around, parts of ceiling, parts of the lights that used to be on the ceiling, making it hard for all of them to move around. At some points they literally had to crawl over big heaps of concrete, which proved to be very difficult for all of them, especially the wounded – which they almost all were.

Santana often looked back over to Frank and Fran –_haha, good name-combo –_ and went back to help them a couple of times at first, but after that Bill and Mary and the others started helping them a hand.

Santana inwardly laughed a bit at this. _Good bonding exercise – just put some people in a freaking cave with only a small possibility of getting out, and they'll either eat each other alive or actually grow closer. I don't even want to think what will happen when it the stairs are closed off and their hope was all for nothing…_

She went slower and looked sad all of a sudden. A dozen what-ifs and maybe's popped into her head. _Was it really okay for me to take charge here? I mean, seriously, I don't know shit about this type of situation._ But she decided she didn't have a choice. Going forward should be better than curling up in a corner and crying, _right?_

Quinn had been watching the girl for a while now, getting closer and closer to her as the others sometimes stayed back to help each other now. She saw her eyes get sad, and suddenly very fierce again.

Quinn sighed… That girl was amazing. She had been helping all of them, without asking for anything in return. She was the only that hadn't even cried yet. It was like she was fearless…

_Yeah, Santana is definitely fearless and amazing. And totally smart. And really really hot…_

Quinn shook her head to get that thought out. _Not appropriate, seriously! We could freaking die, and all I'm thinking about are her lips, and her body, and…_

"Yo, Quinn, you okay?"

Santana had noticed her staring and had come back to walk – or more like, stumble - next to her.

Quinn snapped out of her daze and focused her attention on the girl in front of her again.

"I, uh…" She started, but she couldn't even finish her sentence. _What the hell kind of excuse can I give for swooning over a girl when we could be dying._

Santana interpreted her silence as something else. She couldn't even imagine that a perfectly pretty girl like Quinn would have any interest, so she just immediately blamed something else. She nodded and softly smiled at Quinn, after which she turned her attention to the group behind them.

"Okay guys, I think this would be as good a time and place as any to rest up a bit. We've been walking for like over 2 hours now, and some rest from all the friggin' rock-climbing wouldn't be bad. If you've got any water, share it, but be sparse! No need to die from dehydration."

The others looked extremely relieved and settled down in the hallway. Frank put Fran down very calmly and continued to talk to her. They all quietly started talking to each other, having become more friendly because of the situation they were in.

Quinn was also included in the conversation, but she couldn't keep her attention away from the Latina, who was sitting on a rock a bit away from the rest of them, leaning her head against the wall.

The blonde went up to Santana and held some water in front of her. "No need for you to die of dehydration either", she joked, smiling down on the brunette.

Santana smiled up at her. "Thanks, Q." She took the water and took one small sip to please the blonde.

"Okay, San, did you even drink? 'Cause it looks like nothing went out of my bottle." Quinn eyes the girl suspiciously. "Seriously, I know you think you have to be the strongest here, but that doesn't mean you should stop taking care of yourself."

Santana gave a kind of sad laugh at this. She looked up into the hazel eyes.

"You know, huh? Really?" She smiled sadly and shook her head. "So you've had the responsibility of 10 freaking other people on you often then, huh? You've had to weigh everything you did or said, because apparently you were their only hope? I don't think you get it Quinn!" Her voice was getting louder, but still quiet enough to not alarm the others.

"What do you think will happen when I show a bit of doubt? When I start crying? Because I _do_ doubt things, you know? I doubt everything now, Q. If I say go left and we were supposed to go right, it will all have been _my_ fault! Do you get me? So _don't_ say you know." Santana's head fell. "Because you don't."

Quinn was shocked at all the emotions she had seen in the Latina's dark eyes. Even with the little light they had, she could see her determination, her sadness, and her fear.

When she thought about what Santana had said, she knew the girl was right. She trusted the Latina for a reason she couldn't explain. She felt like taking care of the so selfless girl that had melted her heart the moment she saw her happy smile as she had given her the umbrella.

The others, however, didn't feel like that. They considered Santana as some kind of life raft, and where hanging on to her for dear life, not caring if they might be pushing her under water as they did so. And, in the end, even Quinn was hanging there with them, desperately trying to stay alive.

If Santana showed them any type of fear or weakness now… it would be like their life raft had sunk… They would start clawing at each other to be able to stay above water, but they wouldn't move toward the shore.

As the realization hit her, Quinn went to sit next to Santana. She looked at her intently and gently took the girl's chin in her fingers, lifting her head so the girl's chocolate eyes would meet her own hazel ones.

"You're right… I don't know. And maybe it's best if I don't, for now. But that doesn't mean you should put your health behind everyone else's. If you fall away now, you won't be able to do anything for them. So…" she handed Santana the bottle, "Drink."

Santana looked at her from below, her elbows resting on her legs. She obviously thought about Quinn's remark for a second and then smiled softly.

"Thanks, Q." She took the bottle with her left hand and fumbled it open using that hand alone as well. She took a large gulp now, and sighed deeply after she had drunk. She really needed that.

As she fumbled trying to close the bottle with one hand as well, Quinn couldn't stand it anymore. She took the water and closed it swiftly, locking eyes with Santana, a concerned look in her eyes.

"Your hand… What happened?"

Santana didn't answer this one, and looked away from the blonde. She knew she couldn't deny something was wrong, but she sure as hell wasn't going to tell Quinn what had happened to it.

After a while, she sighed and looked back up at the other girl. "It doesn't matter, Q, just forget about it, okay?"

Quinn frowned at that. "No, that's not okay, Santana, why can't you just admit to me what ha-"

Then realization hit her. "It… It was my fault, wasn't it?" She looked at Santana questioningly, getting an affirmation by the way the girl looked away and avoided eye contact.

"You hurt it when you caught me the moment the elevator broke. Your arm broke my fall… Oh my g-"

"It doesn't matter, okay Quinn? Even if you wouldn't have been there, I would probably have hurt it anyways. So chill out." Santana gave the blonde an encouraging smile and leaned her body a bit closer to hers so she could nudge her arm. Their legs touched, and they felt this type of electricity run through them as they kept looking into each other's eyes.

Quinn felt things she had never felt before… What was this girl doing to her? She smiled and coughed as she looked away, but she didn't move her legs. The way their knees were touching just felt right to her.

"Can I see?" Santana was shocked out of her trance as well at this.

"I don't think that that's-"

"Please San," Quinn pleaded as the girl obviously didn't want her to do so.

Santana rolled her eyes. _Freaking hazel puppy eyes… And that pout… That's just dangerous. How can anyone ever say no to this girl?_

"Fine." She stopped objecting and pulled up the sleeve of her plaid shirt. Quinn took her cell phone to be able to light the damage a bit more.

She gasped when she saw Santana's arm.

Her hand was swollen and bruised, it looked blue all over, but the worst still was her wrist: the skin was ruptured, and Quinn could see some bone sticking out.

Santana saw it herself and was a bit shocked too. _Shit, I hadn't expected it to be this bad_. She immediately corrected herself though, as she saw the blonde start to shake. She tried to pull away her arm and roll her sleeve back up, but Quinn held onto it and gently put it in her lap.

She went into her backpack for the last pieces of Santana's sweater and started putting a bandage on the girl's arm without saying a word.

Quinn's movements were soft, but Santana could see that something was bothering her. When she felt the blonde's hand shaking against her own, she decided that she couldn't take it any longer.

"Quinn?" The blonde's movements stopped for a second, before she went back to taking care of the wrist, never looking at Santana directly.

"Quinn.", Santana said, more pressingly. "What's wrong? Seriously girl, you're scaring me here."

Santana felt Quinn start to shake even harder, but this time the girl didn't stop bandaging the hand.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" The blonde almost hissed the words, her voice cracking at her second question. She snapped her head up to look Santana in the eye.

"What's wrong is that you're probably hurt the most out of everyone here, and yet you're the only one who hasn't asked anyone to take care of it! In fact, it's even worse! Even though you're probably in a hell of a lot of pain, you're the one who has to take care of everyone!"

Quinn had finished wrapping the wrist and now took Santana's left hand in her own.

"What's wrong is that instead of telling anyone, you can't even do that, because you have to be everyone's fucking life raft! And I can't even change that right now! I can't tell the others that you're weak and that they need to help you, because you've already convinced me that that would be a bad idea! And I can't take your place as the freaking leader of this band of weaklings, because I'm a fucking weakling myself!"

Quinn let go of the Latina's hands and buried her face in them, crying now.

"Why can't I just take care of you? You shouldn't have to go through this alone…"

Santana's heart broke at this.

"Hey," she whispered softly to the girl. "Quinn, look at me." She turned herself to the girl completely and took her hands in her own again. Their eyes met again.

"Don't blame yourself, okay? It was my choice to do this shit, and I'm staying in for the rest of the ride. Okay?"

Quinn nodded slightly, but didn't seem all that convinced. Santana looked at a point a bit to the blonde's right and mumbled something.

".."

Quinn didn't understand a thing of that. "What did you say, San?"

Santana sighed and blushed a bit. She still couldn't look Quinn directly in the eye.

"I said… You can take care of me… I kind of even think you're the only one who can right now. Just…" At this she looked into Quinn's eyes. Even in the dark, Quinn could see the Latina was blushing furiously. "Just be around me throughout this thing, 'kay? That'll be enough for me." _For now._

Quinn looked at her dumbfounded. The tough girl was gone now, she had let her guard down for a few seconds, and in her eyes the blonde could see the silent plea. She couldn't pull herself away from those eyes, and found herself leaning closer to them.

Santana broke the silence.

"So… ehm… We cool?"

Her guards were up again, but when Santana shot a shy smile at Quinn, the latter couldn't help but smile back.

"Yeah we're cool." She saw that the girl was relieved, and on instinct she pulled her in for a hug.

Quinn had folded her arms across the brunette's neck, and felt the girl's initial tension at the contact seep away. Santana clasped her arms around the blonde and rested her head on the girl's shoulder.

_Vanilla… I could get used to this_.

"Santana!"

The Latina grumbled and looked up to see who had disturbed them, pulling away from Quinn and immediately putting up her HBIC mask.

"What?", she scowled, watching as Frank came closer.

"Do you, maybe… I mean, we're all rested up and we think we can go on… If you think that's okay?" The last part was more of a mumble because of Santana's strong gaze. She noticed it herself and corrected her face.

"Yeah, good idea Frank." The guy's face lit up like a dog who had been given a cookie. _Too easy_.

Santana stood up, quickly rolling her sleeve over her injured and bandaged arm again. She looked down at Quinn as she did so and gave her a quick smile.

"Let's go, blondie."

Quinn stood up, rolling her eyes at the Latina's words, but at the same time smiling inwardly.

_What is this girl doing to me? One thing's for sure: it's going to be a loooong Valentine._


	5. Chapter 5

"So,… what's your favourite colour?"

Santana looked at Quinn in surprise, lifting one eyebrow. The two of them were walking at the head of the group, crawling over more and more big rocks.

"Don't you think we've gotten pas this 'becoming friends'-stage already, Q? I mean, not to burst your bubble here, but we _have_ been on a survival together for a little over four hours now, and we've hugged and all, so I don't think this is really, like, necessary."

Quinn chuckled at Santana's sarcasm.

"Why wouldn't it be necessary? Right now I don't know anything about you, or you about me for that matter, and I just… want to get to know you."

Santana just rolled her eyes at that, but the darkness of their surroundings was hiding the little blush that was spreading on her cheeks.

"Why would you want to get to know me…" she whispered softly.

"What did you say?"

"Eh, I said, 'ask away then!'"

Quinn was pretty sure she had heard something different the first time, but she decided to let it drop as she saw the way the brunette was smirking at her. _God, that smile…_

"Okay" Quinn smiled back at her "So, what's your story?"

Santana laughed at that. "Oh, hold up, how do we go from what's your favourite colour to what's your story?"

Quinn laughed with her. "Oh come on, we're way past that superficial stage already, right?"

Santana rolled her eyes at that. _Way to use my words against me, Q._

"Fine then. What exactly do you want to know about my life?"

Quinn thought about this for a little while Santana was helping her up on a particularly big chunk of concrete.

"Where are you from, what do you do in life, and why did you look like you were trying to be invisible just now?"

Santana looked at her in surprise. She did not see that last question coming.

"Okay, so… I've always lived around here, in a small town close by. I came to the city for my job as a translator about a year ago, and now I'm here."

Quinn rolled her eyes smilingly at that. _Wow, way to put the story of your life down to three sentences. Hold on…_

"So why were you almost invisible then?"

To her surprise, Santana looked away and blushed a bit at that. She started walking a bit faster, Quinn following right after her. She almost bumped into the her as the brunette suddenly stopped.

"So, are you gonna answer me n-"

"You have got to be kidding me…"

Quinn looked around to see that Frank was being his obnoxious self again, but this time not even Santana answered him as they all stared in the same direction. Quinn followed their line of sight, her mouth falling open in shock.

According to their surroundings, they should almost have arrived at the end of the hallway, with the staircase just behind a door, finally a way to get out of that hellhole…

But that was not what they were seeing right now. Santana had worked hard to keep their hopes up just a little bit, to keep them motivated throughout the trip through what they collectively called Hell, just to be able to keep them going. Just to be able to get to their goal: the staircase.

"We're doomed… It's official now, we're really seriously doomed." One of the two healthy girls – _Ally?_ – stared in front of her as well, in too much of a shock to even start crying.

Quinn couldn't really disagree with her this time; the corridor was now completely covered in huge chunks of concrete and rubble, blocking their way towards their only exit. She looked sideways at Santana and saw the girl looking at the mess as well, shining her cell phone's light across the wall that had doomed up in front of them.

_See, even she looks scared. What should we do now, we'll never get out of here! No, stop! Get a grip Fabray, don't act like they all do! Look at them!_

Quinn eyed the others. Some of them were still staring at the rubble, almost catatonically, but the others just looked at Santana, almost pleadingly, waiting for her to do or say something. The fear in their eyes was clear, too clear.

Quinn walked closer to Santana, wanting to comfort the girl, but she stopped dead in her tracks as the Latina moved forward to the rubble.

The others didn't even talk at this anymore. They just couldn't. Their only hope had apparently just given up, they were all tired and just wanted to be alone with their thoughts.

Most of them had slumped to the floor hugging, hanging onto each other for dear life, sobbing. Quinn could see that Frank and Fran were embracing each other as well, but she couldn't even think about that right now.

She looked at Santana. The smaller girl was still looking up and down the concrete.

_She's so small… Why did I only see right now that she's so small? How could she possibly take care of us all?_

Quinn wiped her hand across her face, surprised to find out that she was crying. She took a deep breath and slowly started walking towards Santana. She had promised she would take care of her, and so she would. Just as she put her hand on the Latina's shoulder, they heard a loud rumble coming from somewhere to their right.

Everything went fast after that, too fast for Quinn to register anything clearly. It was like everything around her happened in a strobe light.

She saw Santana look at her in fear. She felt herself being pushed back. She heard screaming over the loud noise. She saw parts of ceiling fall right in front of her. She saw the others being pushed against the good wall as well. More ceiling fell as she saw Santana pull Ally and her friend towards the wall. She saw the girl's fierce, but fearful face.

Then she saw nothing. Everything went black.

* * *

><p>When the rumbling stopped, Quinn started to get back to herself again. Her breathing was heavy and loud in the silence that surrounded her.<p>

She was curled up on the floor, and as she opened her eyes slightly, she saw dusty heads lying next to her, sluggishly looking around as well to find out what happened. She wanted to ask them if they were okay, but all that came out of her mouth was a dry cough, the dust that was around them having made its way into her lungs.

At the small movement of her chest, the blonde noticed a dead weight above her. She shifted her head to the right, and was surprised to see Santana's head lying right next to hers, the girl's eyes closed.

She opened her eyes wide in surprise and moved some more to be able to see what had happened. The Latina's body was lying on top of her own, covered in more dust and some dangerously large rocks.

"_Help_…", Quinn husked out, her voice hoarse. "Everyone, help!" Her voice was louder now, and the panic in it made the others look at their situation, a look of panic in their eyes as well.

The members of the group scrambled over to them. Bill, Ally and Frank started to pull the rocks of of them hastily, their faces filled with fear and concern.

When they were finally able to get all of the rubble of of Santana, they laid her down on her back a bit further away, where there was less stone on the ground. Frank hovered over her, blocking her from the blonde's sight. Ally quickly rushed to Quinn's side.

"Is… Is she…?"

The blonde sat up straight. She wanted to go get closer to the Latina, but a sharp pain in her shoulder stopped her.

"We need to get you fixed first, honey. Liz, come help?" Her friend came to her aid right away and the two of them wanted to start pouring some water over her shoulder, but Quinn shrugged them away.

"No, stop… Tell me Frank, how is she? Just tell me something!"

She was pretty much in tears now, and Liz pulled her into a hug, nearly crying as well.

Frank finally found his voice again.

"She's…"

"_Fine_", a hoarse voice interjected. "I'm fine, so just… stop crying, okay?"

Quinn looked up at this, together with the others.

Santana was sitting up, her hand on Frank's shoulder. For as far as Quinn could see in the dim light, she looked awful, but there was no damage visible. She was even trying to stand up already.

"Santana, maybe you shouldn't…" Frank tried to say, but a fierce glare from Santana shut him up. Quinn could see him whisper something, but she was too far away to understand anything. As the Latina curtly shook her head no, Frank just looked down and helped her up.

She immediately went over to where Quinn was.

"Are you okay?", she whispered softly, her good hand covering the girl's cheek. She wiped a couple of tears away. "You didn't have to worry about me, you know."

Her dark eyes locked with the blonde's hazel ones as she said that. Quinn threw herself in the girl's arms as she saw the sad look in her eyes. She didn't even feel the brunette wince as she hugged her tightly, sobbing loudly now.

"I thought I… I thought we'd lost you!", she cried into the girl's neck, her body shaking with the thought of losing her.

"I thought I'd lost you too…" She only barely heard Santana mumble against her head.

Quinn let go of the hug at this, and saw in Santana's eyes all the fear (and passion?) she knew were visible in her own. But the moment was only very short, and soon enough the brunette had her walls up again.

She distanced herself from Quinn and stood up again, looking around the dusty space. All the others seemed to be okay, except for some minor injuries and the obvious shock on their faces.

Santana breathed in deeply. She had to pull herself together and think of something. They would not die this way. _Especially not…_

Quinn saw the Latina clench her fists again as the fierce look made its way onto her face.

"Okay guys." Santana's voice wasn't as loud and convincing as it had been before, but everybody listened closely to her anyway as she faced the group again.

"I know shit looks bad right now. We're all pretty shaken up, tired and hurt, and it seems as if our last resort was lost."

She sighed deeply and looked down for a bit, noticing how the others were doing the same thing as they thought about the way their last hope had left them.

"But," Santana continued, earning their attention again, "I still refuse to die here, like this. And I know-", she added quickly, as she saw some of them were starting to speak up, "- I know that it seems hopeless now, but just… Don't give up yet, okay? Just give me one more chance to try and make this right."

Quinn saw that the girl's face was hard and looked almost certain of herself, but when she looked down, she saw that her hands were shaking because she was clenching them so tight.

_She feels guilty… After all this, she still feels responsible, and it kills her to fail. What the hell made her be this way?_

She wanted to agree with Santana out loud, when someone else beat her to it.

"I agree with Santana." Everyone was surprised to see that Frank had spoken up.

"I also don't feel like dying down here, and frankly, she's our only hope." He was facing her now. "You've earned our trust when you got us out of that freaking elevator, even though that seemed impossible at the time too. I'll trust you with everything now as well…"

Santana looked relieved as she saw that everybody around her nodded. They would give her another chance.

She swallowed deeply and addressed them all again.

"Okay, thank Frank, all of you. I think you all should get rested and healed up first. I'm going to wander around a bit to find… something. Just leave it to me, okay?"

They all nodded as they saw Santana move out of the light in the direction of the wall of concrete that was blocking their way, until she was out of sight.

Quinn watched the brunette in awe as Ally and Liz finally began taking care of her wounded shoulder.

Hardly anybody talked now; they all wanted to be alone with their thoughts.

Quinn's mind, like all of their minds, went firstly to her friends and family 'outside'.

_I'll never see them again_.

It wasn't a fearful thought anymore, like it was when they first got stuck in that elevator. It was just sad now, and almost… accepting. She still wanted to believe Santana, and the girl had given her a bit of hope that they might survive this, but…

_Santana…_

She thought about the girl. The Latina was amazing. Everything about her made Quinn feel… something. Her smile made her melt, her blush made her adore the girl, her toughness just made her… swoon. The thought of losing her earlier…

Quinn shook her head to herself…

_What is happening to me? I only met this girl a few hours ago, but the thought of losing her, it just kills me. I should be thinking about Rachel and Brittany, about never seeing _them_ again, but instead, she just doesn't leave my mind._ _This has been one hell of a Valentine's day…_

Valentine's day… Losing someone on Valentine's day… Losing love-

_Oh hell no, I cannot seriously be believing that stupid Madame Whatshername's prediction? That's just stupid! I am not falling for-_

"Santana!" Wendy (one of the two teens) shouted as she saw the girl come back to them.

Everyone looked at her as she walked back into the light, facing the group again. Her breathing was loud in the silence that no one dared to break.

Eventually, Frank couldn't take it anymore.

"So.. Is there another way out?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN So thank you all for the reviews! The story is really interesting in my head, but getting it out on 'paper' is actually a lot harder than expected.**** About the piece of bone thing: let's just say I liked the drama of it all :) Besides, I think a lot of my ideas don't really work in real life, so just suspend your disbelief and it'll be fine.**

**If you want to know exactly who was down there in the basement again, here are their names:**

**Santana – Quinn – Frank – Fran – Bill – Mary – Ally – Liz – Jill – Wendy – Johnny**

**Cheers :)**


	6. Chapter 6

Everybody looked at her nervously. They had all gotten up to form a circle around the Latina, a circle of dusty, tired people, standing in the middle of the ruins of a mall basement.

Santana was still looking down breathing heavily, until Frank asked her the question they all wanted to know.

"_So… Is there another way out?"_

At that, Santana slowly lifted her head to be able to look at the group. She was still catching her breath.

"Yeah…", she said breathily, almost a sigh as it left her mouth, "Yeah, I think I might have found another way."

As the last words left her mouth, her lips curled up just a little bit. "I think we might have another chance to find us some stairs."

The others started smiling now as well, and gave some kind of breathy chuckles, clutching their hearts.

Quinn felt like a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders as well.

_We could still have a chance… We're not dead yet!_

They all came together a bit, smiling and laughing with relief, hugging each other happily. Their laughter grew louder as they started patting each other on the shoulder. Quinn also threw herself in the arms of some others, just happy to still have a chance.

"Guys?" Santana was trying to get their attention again. "I don't want to burst your happy bubble, but I think I'll just have to do it."

They all calmed down a bit, worried about what Santana was going to say next.

"So, there is a small way through the rocks that we can squirm ourselves through. If we do, we'll get to the left corridor that hopefully will lead to the staircase that leads outside. It won't be easy to get to that other hallway, but we should be able to manage getting that far. I just want you guys to be realistic though: there is still a possibility that that way will be blocked as well."

The others hung their heads down again, knowing Santana was right. It can never be easy, they could still die. The odds of the other staircase being completely open were almost inexistent and –

"But…", Santana went on, "even if that happens again, I'll find a way."

Quinn looked up at the small Latina. The two of them locked eyes. Quinn saw the fierce look in the other girl's eyes, her determination, and something else she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"I promise you all, I'll get you out of here. No matter what, you _will_ live."

They all fell silent again. _This girl…_ They should've known that that type of promise was almost impossible. They knew that the odds of them getting out of there were minimal.

But if she said it, they believed her. If there was someone who could pull this off, it was her.

"Santana…" Frank was looking at her with tears in his eyes and made to go and hug her.

Santana put her HBIC-face on and quickly shrugged him off.

"Oh hell no, you ain't gonna get sappy with me now, are ya Frank? I was just stating a fact, and it doesn't mean I like you now. I can still go ALL Lima Heights on your ass. And that goes for all of you."

She glared across the room, her arms crossed. Instead of being afraid though, this time the others almost laughed at it. She wasn't their saviour when she was like that, just… Santana.

"So, get your stuff and let's get the hell out of here! Naptime's over!"

Quinn smiled at the feisty girl. She knew the Latina was really starting to like their little survival-group, even if they were seriously high maintenance.

_But I'm pretty sure she likes me the best…_

Quinn's smile got bigger as she thought that, staring at the Latina again. She was caught however, and her loving smile was caught by Santana, who looked away quickly, obviously blushing furiously.

Quinn quickly checked herself. _A _loving_ smile, seriously? It's really way too early to talk about love. I mean, sure, I like her… A lot. And the thought of losing her is just… no. And she's sweet, and tough, and gorgeous, and those lips are just – Oh my god I'm falling for her. I am seriously falling for her! What-do-I-do-what-do-I-do-what-do-I-do?_

She looked up to see Santana helping Fran up on Frank's back again, and apparently informing them about something. She sighed a bit.

_What shouldn't I do? I like her, I think she likes me too, and we could be dead in no time… It's like Madame blablablah said, this is my chance._

She smiled to herself as she saw Santana come over.

"You ready, Q?", Santana asked, putting her left hand on the girl's wrist.

Quinn took Santana's hand in her own and smiled at the brunette. The latter couldn't help but smile back.

"Definitely. I trust you, San."

Santana smiled and blushed at this, before her eyes went a bit sad.

"I wish I could say the same.", she whispered, hardly loud enough for Quinn to hear, and the girl couldn't say anything about it anyways, because Santana was already pulling her toward the wall of rubble that was blocking their path.

She let go of Quinn's hand after the blonde shot her an encouraging smile, and started crawling up a part of the wall, pointing with her phone's light.

"Okay, so you see this hole here?" There was a small dark part between the regular wall and the rubble that should just about be able to fit one person at a time.

"We should all be able to crawl through here. You just have to stick close to the wall, then you'll feel the corner of the hallway. Just follow it until you're at the other side. The tricky part is to get down at the end, but if I go first, I'll be able to help you all down, okay?"

They all nodded, a bit nervous now. This wasn't going to be easy, but they weren't going to back down now. It was their only chance, and they would definitely take it.

Santana gave some last pointers to the wounded, to make sure they all got through alright, and then she took of first. Quinn saw the girl disappear through the gap and couldn't help but feel like she had lost the girl again.

_Wow, abandonment issues already, really?_

She sighed to herself as she climbed halfway up the rubble to be able to help Fran up; they had decided that the wounded ones would be helped through first, and for Fran especially it wouldn't be easy to get through this thing.

When finally it was Quinn's turn to go through, she was already starting to get pretty nervous as well. She had heard some shouts coming through the gap, usually Frank's voice was heard loudly from the other side, and Quinn was getting kind of worried about this entire idea. Besides, small spaces weren't exactly her favourites either.

After a deep breath she pulled herself through the hole, and was immediately surprised by how cramped it was in there.

_How the hell did Fran get through here? Seriously! Drop me from in an elevator again, just not in this freaking hell-hole, like, literally!_

When she was able to squirm herself through to the corner, she felt the passage get even more narrow, and because of the darkness she couldn't see where she was or where she was going.

"Oh god…", Quinn whispered, her breathing getting shallow and rapid. "Oh god oh godohgod-"

She just froze to the spot, breathing heavily, not knowing where to go, not even remembering where the hell she had come from. Her body was shaking all over, and tears were starting to fall from her face, when suddenly she heard a rustling come from somewhere to her right. _Or was it her left?_

"Hey…" She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked to her right. Even though she couldn't see anything, just the smell of the girl sitting so closeby indicated to her who was next to her.

* * *

><p>Santana had noticed that the blonde took way longer than the others to get out of the gap, and had been seriously worried. Not that she would show it to anyone, though, of course.<p>

_Should I be worried? She's been in there for a really long time now. Keep your cool, Lopez, she's not a kid, she can take care of herself! Maybe I should just go and take a look. A look won't hurt, will it?_

By this time she was almost jumping up and down. Frank was glaring in her direction and made way to come and talk to her about something she _really_ didn't want to talk about, so she made up her mind right away.

"I'm going to check up on Quinn for a bit guys, she seems to be taking a long time there. Take a breath, see you in a bit."

She quickly hurried back onto the rubble, into the gap, leaving behind a sighing Frank.

As she made her way back through the narrow path, she heard Quinn's sobs getting closer, and as she made to sit next to her, she felt the girl's body shaking violently as well.

"Hey", Santana said as she put a hand on the blonde's shoulder.

The terrified girl stopped her sobbing a bit when she noticed who was sitting next to her.

"I'm sorry…" was the first thing she blurted out through her sobs.

Santana frowned. She didn't understand where this was coming from.

"You're sorry, Quinn-", she tried to find the girl's face with her hand, and as she did she tilted it to try and make the girl look at her.

"Quinn, at least try to look at me.", she joked, hoping it would calm the girl at least a bit.

When she heard the girl chuckle lightly, she knew that had at least somewhat worked. She kept stroking the girl's cheek as she began talking in on her.

"So, why the hell would you be sorry? It's not your fault that this place is so damn narrow and dusty and just freaking dark."

She could feel Quinn smile now underneath her hand, although the girl did let her head hang a bit more at the question as well.

"It's just… Our talk earlier, and our promise."

Santana really didn't get it anymore now. "You mean my promise to get us all out of here? Look, I know it's a bit pretentious of me, but I swear…"

"No!", Quinn quickly interjected, "No it's not that… Well maybe a bit, but no!"

"So, then…"

Quinn felt tears sting at her eyes again. "It's just… God, It's just so unfair! I'm afraid of this freaking small space, and I'm not even hurt, and here I am and I can't even keep going! I'm the weakest weakling of this entire place!"

Santana engulfed the girl in an awkward hug – the space was still too narrow to move around a lot.

"Relax, Q, that doesn't' matter. Everyone has something they're afraid of doing, you have the right to let go and be weak sometimes and-"

"No, San, no! _You_ have the right to let go and be weak sometimes! _You_ probably also have something you're afraid of doing. And I know-", she continued as she felt Santana start the counter – they were so close now she didn't need to see the girl to know when she was frowning –

"I know we talked about this earlier and that you don't have a choice, but I did promise you that I would take care of you! I was too afraid to do so earlier, when we thought we didn't have a way out, but even then you ended up protecting me! And now here we are again, and _again_ you're the one who is forced to take care of me! So tell me, Santana, how is that fair?"

Santana was silent after that, and just hugged the girl even harder. Quinn leant into the embrace, leaning her head against Santana's shoulder.

"_Nobody is forcing me_", Quinn felt the voice come from Santana's body rather than hearing it. She put her head up a bit to be able to 'look' the girl in the eyes as good as she could, waiting for an elaboration.

She heard Santana sigh a bit as she began to explain, her head down so as to not have to be seen by Quinn, even in the dark.

"I just… Nobody is forcing me to care for you, Quinn. Maybe I'm not supposed to care for the others, fine, and you could call that forced, but for you I just… care. It's just… something about you I guess."

Her voice had turned to a complete whisper at the end, but Quinn could understand every word of it and felt her heart beat rapidly. She placed her hand under the suddenly shy Latina's chin and lifted her head up again. She stroked her hands a little higher, finding Santana's lips and brushing over them with her thumb. As she found them, she leaned in closer, bridging the already small distance between them to kiss the other girl.

Santana was too surprised to answer at first, but after a few moments her mind understood what was happening and she kissed the girl back sweetly. Her hands crept their way up to the other girl's neck, pulling her closer, when-

"Guys? Are you okay in there?"

They pulled back, gasping for air as they came back to reality. Santana was the first one to regain her senses.

"Guys?"

"YEAH COMING! Jeez…"

She sighed deeply and turned back to Quinn.

"We should probably…"

"Yeah, let's go."

They crawled on to the end and were met with Frank's head looking suspiciously through the gap.

"What the hell g-"

"She got stuck Frank, that's all! Stop freaking out, will ya?"

Santana was obviously pissed, but as they made their way down the steep pile of rubble, Quinn wasn't sure whether it was at the fact that she had kissed her or at Frank.

When they got down, though, she made eye contact with Santana, and as the other girl smiled lovingly, followed by an angry glare at Frank, she knew that they were good. Maybe a talk later would make it even better, but for now, they were good.

As the last person finally came through the hole, Santana was almost raring to go and get away from Frank's suspicious looks.

"Alright everyone, one obstacle taken, only about a million more to go! Keep checking those cell phones, let's go!"

She started walking first, the others following right behind her. Quinn wanted to hurry and walk next to the brunette, when she was stopped by a hand on her wrist.

It was Frank. "Hey, Quinn, can we talk? It's about Santana."


	7. Chapter 7

Quinn looked at Frank in surprise. _Why the hell would Frank, of all people, want to talk to me about Santana?_

He obviously noticed her scepticism.

"Listen, I know I got off on the wrong start with pretty much everyone in this place, especially Santana. But hear me out okay? Please?"

The look in his eyes was so serious and genuine that Quinn decided to give him a chance. I mean, he even said 'please'. When have you ever heard Frank the Business-Boy say 'please'?

"Sorry, Frank, I guess you're right. Can you blame me though? You've been giving Santana a rough time from the beginning, even though all she ever wanted to do was help."

Frank actually even looked deflated at those words, and hung his head down nodding as they walked on.

"Yeah, yeah I know. But this whole… experience has changed me quite a bit. Santana has changed me quite a bit." His head went up again to look at the woman he had been carrying the bigger part of the time, and who was now on Bill's back. "And helping Fran has just been…"

Quinn smiled as she saw the look on his face. "You really like her, don't you?"

Frank looked at her in surprise at first, but quickly smiled warmly as he noticed that Quinn hadn't meant any harm in saying that.

"Yeah… Definitely. Some Valentine's Day, right?"

They walked on together in silence for a bit, bypassing big parts of concrete again, each in their own thoughts.

Frank was the first to speak after a little while.

"I guess it's the same with us at it is with you and Santana, huh?"

Quinn jerked her head to the side in surprise. _How could he-_

Frank laughed at the shock in her face.

"Oh, come on, you're not exactly subtle either. The sweet looks, the comforting touches, the smiles… I swear, you're the only person she truly smiles at down here!"

Quinn was laughing with him now. They were pretty obvious, indeed, and down here you couldn't exactly hide anything from anyone. The Frank stopped laughing, and his face became serious again.

"That's actually why I wanted to talk to you about this… Quinn, you're the only one she trusts down here. She has to be strong for all of us, but with you, it feels like she's a bit more relaxed. I can try to talk to her as much as I want, but she won't listen to me. She'll listen to you, though."

Quinn was really starting to get worried at this.

"What do you mean, Frank? Why do you try to talk to her? About what?"

Frank sighed and looked in front of him. The others were already a bit further up ahead, obviously not listening in on their conversation.

"She's hurt, Quinn… Really hurt."

"I know, Frank, I've seen her hand, but I've bandaged it and she-"

"Oh no, I'm not just talking about the hand, Quinn!"

He stopped now, his hand on her wrist, looking her straight in the eye.

"She concealed her hand problem pretty well, I only noticed when I came to get you two earlier, at our first break. I'm talking about her injuries after she… you know, protected you when the ceiling came down on us."

Quinn frowned her eyebrows, getting a bit angry now. "What are you talking about, you said she was fine!"

"She told me to say she was fine! She said nobody should worry about her, and I believed her! She's like our life raft, Quinn, we need her!"

"Yeah, but you need her in one piece!" Quinn was almost shouting now, happy that the others were out of earshot. "We all need her healthy!"

"I know!" He calmed down now and put his head in his hands. "I know. That's why I've been keeping an eye on her since then. Or at least, I've been trying to… She won't let me in, Quinn, she won't show any weakness! All I've been able to discern is that she's been having more trouble breathing than the rest of us, even though at the beginning she was way fitter than anyone."

Quinn calmed down as well now… It wasn't Frank's fault, he's been trying but of course, Santana won't let him help. _Santana_…

"Quinn, just please… I don't want to lose that girl… And I don't mean as our last hope, I mean, as someone I respect and admire… A friend. Just, please, try and take care of her."

Quinn put her hand on his shoulder, causing him to look up again. "Thanks, Frank, for caring about her. Don't blame yourself for her stupid stubbornness." Frank smiled a bit at that. "I'll do my best to help her."

Frank pulled her in for a quick hug. "Thanks, Quinn.", he whispered, before letting go.

"Anytime Frank.", Quinn smiled, but her smile was quickly replaced by an angry frown. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to have a word with a certain stubborn Latina."

At that, the two of them hurried on, Quinn fuming, Frank just following after her, to where they saw some lights, indicating the group that was waiting for them.

Santana saw them coming and spoke up, her voice filled with concern.

"There you are, what the hell happened that took you so-"

She couldn't even finish her sentence as she was pulled away from the rest by an obviously angry Quinn. She tried to protest, but the girl's grip was so strong, and one look of her told Santana that she shouldn't even try to talk right now.

"Ehm, break-time everyone! Take 5!", Santana shouted, before she was pulled around a big rock, out of the others' sight.

"Quinn, what is-"

"Don't you _dare_ ask _me_ what's wrong, Santana!"

She looked into the Latina's eyes, her anger being met by confusion.

"What-"

"I had a little talk with Frank, Santana."

She saw the smaller girl's eyes go from confusion to a weird mixture of shock, anger and fear.

"Oh…"

"Yeah, oh! What were you thinking, Santana! Why didn't you just tell me you were seriously hurt, I could have helped you! _Care_ for you, remember?"

Santana looked down at this.

"I know, Q, I do, but everyone was lost then. I needed to find a way out, I needed them to trust me, and they can't do that if they think I'm-"

"What? If they think you're _what_? Human? You don't have to be freaking superwoman to gain their trust! You're not superwoman, Santana!"

"I know I'm not, that's the problem!" Santana had her arms crossed by now.

"Wait, what?" Quinn calmed down at Santana's answer.

"I know I'm not superwoman, I know I'm just some little girl who's trying to be a freaking hero. But that's all I have going for me right now, Quinn! I'm nothing without the image they have of me, I'm nobody! Don't you get it? This image of being superwoman is all I have right now? Who the hell do you think will listen to me if they find out I'm just like them, another small-town loser, doing some stupid office jobs just like everyone else! I can't do anything if I'm _me_, they won't listen to _me_, they'll listen to someone who's able to protect them without having any problems herself!"

Quinn was completely baffled now. _This girl seriously thinks way too much about others… And way too little of herself._

"Santana…" She put her hands on the girl's shoulders, forcing the brunette to face her.

"Don't put this all on you. I told you before, you can let go sometimes. And don't think you're nobody besides the image everyone here has of you." She cupped the brunette's cheek. "There's so much more to you than you think."

Santana wiped away a few tears, trying hard not to make Quinn notice she was crying.

"Thanks, Q…"

Quinn wrapped her arms around to girl in a hug, but was surprised when she felt her flinch as she held her tight. She let go quickly.

"Let me see."

Santana was looking away now.

"San, let me see! Please!"

Santana couldn't handle the pleading tone of Quinn's voice, and the concern in the other girl's eyes, so she stepped away from Quinn a little and started unbuttoning her plaid shirt.

Quinn swallowed a bit at first as she saw the girl's naked skin, but quickly got over that when she noticed the way the Latina winced as she had to get her arms from her sleeves, being extra careful with the girl's right hand.

"Stop"

She turned the girl around and took the collar of the shirt, so that she could take it off for Santana. She gasped loudly as she saw the girl's back, the perfect olive skin marred by bruises and scrape wounds. She decided not to get angry at the girl again, though.

"Let's just get you cleaned up now, okay?", she said, taking her bottle and some leftover rags from her backpack. She softly placed her left hand on Santana's shoulder, and gently used the wet cloth to clean out the brunette's wounds, trying hard not to hurt her too much.

Even with all the awful bruising, Quinn still couldn't believe how soft the girl's back was.

_I know I shouldn't be thinking this right now, but I really wish I could just keep touching her forever. She's seriously gorgeous._

When she finished taking care of the wounds, she couldn't help but trace her fingers along the Latina's shoulders, caressing the girl's neck as she went. She felt the girl's tension flow away at her touch, as her shoulders visibly relaxed.

Quinn couldn't help herself but place a kiss between the girl's shoulder blades, causing the brunette to roll her neck back, her breathing laboured.

"There, all better…" Quinn whispered softly, smiling into Santana's back.

The Latina chuckled at that. "So, I'm a little kid now, huh?" She smiled as she turned to face the blonde. "With what I'm thinking, I don't think it would be okay for you to be my mom though."

Quinn couldn't help but laugh at that. "Well, shorty, in that case I don't think I even want to know what's going on in your mind."

Santana placed her arms around the blonde's neck, still shirtless, pulling the taller girl's face closer to hers. She whispered huskily: "_Are you sure you don't want to know?_"

Quinn swallowed hard at that, looking from Santana's eyes, to her lips, to her uncovered upper body. It took a lot of her to focus her attention back to Santana's eyes.

_Two can play this game_, Quinn thought, as she leaned in, placing her mouth right next to Santana's ear.

"I'm sure, San. _I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be a good idea for me to tear your clothes off and take you against this rock when the rest of the group is waiting only a couple of feet away_."

This time it was Santana's turn to swallow. She pulled Quinn in for a passionate kiss, but just as their lips touched, of course-

"Santana, Quinn? Is everything alright there?"

"WE'RE FINE! God! Freaking cock-block", the Latina mumbled the last part softly, but just loud enough for Quinn to laugh at her.

"Oh come on sweetie, he's just concerned, you know. Let's put your shirt on and get back to them."

Santana pouted at Quinn and looked at her with big puppy eyes as they put her shirt back on.

"Oh no, that's not going to work on me, S. It's not because I said you don't have to be superwoman all the time, that being a baby is the way to go."

Santana didn't relent, and her bottom lip started to quiver as she looked at Quinn pleadingly.

"No, no don't do that." She was completely melting for the Latina now. "Oh, come on, stop it, seriously, I'm just gonna turn my cell phone off and then I won't see you and it won't affect me at all, and… Oh screw this-"

She stopped her rambling and captured the pouty lips between her own, sucking slightly on the – no longer – trembling bottom lip as she did so. When they finally let go, they were both gasping for air; Santana's chest was heaving up and down as she tried hard to control her breathing.

"Satisfied?" Quinn asked, licking her swollen lips.

"Not really", Santana answered, still catching her breath. "But I guess it'll just have to do." She winked as she passed Quinn to get back to the group, noticing the blonde smile and roll her eyes at the same time before she followed as well.

"Okay guys, sorry for the interruption, we should probably get going again, aight? Okay let's go then!"

And without saying anything more, she turned around again, grabbing Quinn's hand as she walked on.

Santana shot the blonde a smile as she intertwined their fingers.

Quinn couldn't help but smile back at her and walked next to the brunette happily, her mind filled with thoughts of the two of them doing the exact same thing on a regular street, not in the ruins of a mall struggling to survive.

To her, the future looked very bright at that moment, and she couldn't help but grin widely, not even noticing how Santana's happy smile had turned into a sad one as they walked on.


	8. Chapter 8

In the outside world, it was night by now. Quinn hoped that her friends were safe at home now, lying in their beds, without dust and gravel all over them, without their feet hurting because they had tripped over rubble one too many times, without being hungry and thirsty.

They were lucky they weren't still in the mall as well when the building collapsed – _and she was lucky she was when it happened_.

"You're thinking too much, Q…", she looked up smiling as Santana sing-songed in her ear.

The Latina rolled her eyes laughing. "What were you thinking about anyways. It's like you were in some other world."

"Ha, yeah, well, can you blame me? I mean, this place isn't exactly paradise, right?" Santana couldn't help but laugh at the irony. This hell was indeed far from any type of paradise.

"Although I have to say though", Quinn continued, looking at Santana with a flirtatious smile, "this hell isn't so bad with an angel to guide us through it. I have to say, I can't wait until we can walk like this", lifting their intertwined hands up pointedly, "out on the streets."

Santana blushed and looked away quickly at this, but this time Quinn saw the sad expression that played on the brunette's face.

"San, what's wrong?", Quinn asked, suddenly concerned. "You've been really quiet since we started walking again… Are you still worried you won't get us out of here? Or is it the walking on the streets part."

The smaller girl didn't answer, but Quinn felt the hand she was holding get tense.

"Santana, what's wrong." She grasped the girl and turned her to face her, cupping her cheek as the Latina refused to meet her eyes. "Why are you-"

She stopped and whipped her head to the side suddenly, just like Santana did.

The others caught up with them and saw them standing completely still, staring intently into the darkness.

"Ehm, guys? Santana, what's going-" Ally was quickly interrupted by Santana holding her hand up and shushing her.

They all fell silent right away and listened, but they couldn't hear anything but their own breathing. Ally was about to ask Santana again, when they heard a small sound, like a cry or something.

Before the rest could even really register what they were hearing, Santana was already on the move toward the noise.

"Hello? Is someone still here? Make some noise again so we can find you!"

Everyone was dead silent as they waited, and began to think that they had heard wrong, when suddenly something that resembled a sob was heard, followed by a pained: "_Oh god, help me, please help me!_"

Santana didn't need any more encouragement and immediately moved to where she thought the person must be, beginning to move boulders already, digging away at the rubble to find whomever was stuck there.

The others recovered themselves pretty quickly, and Quinn, Frank and Bill went over to help Santana, trying to create some kind of opening.

The sobs became louder as they worked on, and Quinn felt the need to comfort the poor woman – they had heard enough of her soft '_help me's'_ to understand that this was indeed a woman – and so she talked to her.

"Please, stay calm, we're trying to get you out of here. Just breathe slowly, and say something when we get closer, or if we hurt you. Can you do that?"

They heard the person take deep breaths, followed by a soft and muffled "_okay_". The four of them kept searching, every once in a while asking the woman to make some kind of noise, and they began to feel their motivation lessen until they finally uncovered a hole in the rubble.

Santana shone her phone's light through the hole, and saw that it led to a slightly larger space, about as large as the elevator they had been stuck in earlier, although here the ceiling went all the way to the floor, apparently supporting the weight of the fallen building.

They saw the woman only a few feet away to the higher side of the space to their right, lying face down, her body shaking and her eyes shut close as the light shone on her. Her face was obviously stained with tears and dust, and her eyes were apparently filling up again as she saw what were probably the first people she had seen in hours of being stuck in that place.

"I… I c-can't believe it… Someone's here… Someone came for me… You're here… I'm not going to die alone!" She broke down into heavy sobs, causing Santana and Quinn to move over to her side right away, the guys following just behind them.

"Shh…", Quinn was whispering soothingly into the woman's ear, stroking her face. "It's going to be alright, you're not going to die. We'll get you out of here. Come on, let's get you up."

She tried to help the woman up, but she refused. "I c-can't… I'm stuck."

"Quinn…" Santana said it softly, to draw the girl's attention to where she was hunched over. There, Quinn saw that one of the woman's calves was stuck underneath a stray roof beam. Luckily for her, her leg wasn't supporting the full weight of the beam – and part of the rubble that it was stuck under on the right – because the other part was supported by some big chunk of concrete, _or whatever it was_.

The guys came stand with them and had the same shocked look on their faces Quinn had. After all, it was one thing to be stuck in an elevator with 10 others, but at least they could still walk around and try. This woman had been forced to stay here by herself, probably thinking there was no possibility for her to get out of here. But even with them there, was it possible for them to get her out of here?

Quinn looked at Santana and saw that the girl was studying the leg and the beam. She saw her maul over something, uncertainty in her gaze, until she saw the brunette nod to herself, the fierce look in her eyes once again.

She made her way over to the woman's face, so she could talk to her directly, and took a deep breath before locking eyes with her.

"Okay, first of all, what's your name?" Santana's words had the same fierceness she had had all day long, but her look was soft, and the way she touched the woman's shoulders as she spoke showed that she was trying to be gentle but decisive at the same time.

"H- Hannah", the woman said shakily, her bright blue eyes staring at Santana at the same time fearful and hopeful.

_She still looks so young… Probably has a family… Maybe I should ask- No Lopez, get your act together! That type of question won't calm her down, anything but that, and you need her calm to get her out of here… If that's even possible. I can't imagine what she must have been thr- No, focus! No getting teary-eyed here, you are a girl on a mission, joder!_

"Okay, Hannah, listen to me. I'm gonna ask you to do one thing, and that is to stay calm, you get me? I don't do tears, and sobbing and shit. It won't help you, and it definitely won't help me try to get you out of here, am I clear?"

Hannah shot her head up a little to say something, but with one of Santana's famous HBIC glares she fell silent right away and simply nodded fervently. After all, she had heard the girl say that she would try to get her out of here. That was the most hope she had felt since the collapse.

"Alright then, it's good that we're clear. Now, let me ask you, have you had any feeling in your foot after this happened?"

The woman started to tear up right away, but remembering Santana's words she collected herself and just nodded that she hadn't.

"Does it hurt a lot?"

The woman nodded. "Eh… Yeah, but it's gone numb a while ago…"

"Does it feel numb all the way up your legs?"

"No, I don't think so… I mean, I can feel that my knee is kind of painful after lying here for so long, so…"

Santana nodded at this. "Okay, that's a good sign. I think it's time for us to try and get you out of this hell-hole, so all you have to do is lay perfectly still and let us do all the work, okay?"

Hannah started to nod at first, but then her head shot up and she had a look of fear in her eyes.

"Are you… Are you going to cut of my leg?" She tried not to cry like the Latina had told her, but her body started to shake uncontrollably as the woman sobbed loudly.

Santana looked at her in surprise, her eyebrows quirked up.

"Am I going to… what? Oh hell no, there's no way in hell I'm doing _that_! I'd have to wait at least 127 hours to do something like _that_!" She ended with a joke, chuckling at the suggestion the woman had made.

"Then, what _are_ we going to do?" This time it was Bill who asked the question.

"We're going to try to lift the beam", Santana answered simply, making it sound like it would be the easiest thing to do.

The others had their mouths wide open as she said this, causing her to roll her eyes.

Listen, guys, I don't even want to hear it, we're going to try and that's final. If you-" pointing at Bill "-really want to chop off her leg, you can do that after, but first, we're gonna do this my way, vale?"

The two guys and Quinn nodded, waiting for some instructions.

"Okay, first thing, we need a strong rock-boulder-thingy that is just a bit bigger than her leg, that we can slide underneath the beam as we lift it, so that the thing doesn't come crashing down on top of her again. If we got that, Frank and I are gonna try and lift the beam at the high end, and Bill, you're going to put the boulder underneath the beam. After that, I'll steady the thing, and the three of you pull Hannah out, steadying her leg so that it doesn't get damaged any more. Is that clear, or what?"

The three others were dumbfounded by the idea, but the two men quickly set out on a search for the right stone, leaving Santana alone with Quinn and Hannah.

"Santana…", Quinn said, asking the girl's attention. "Maybe you should let Bill help Frank with the lifting. You're hurt and-"

"I know what you're saying, but it's better if Bill stays with her. If something comes up, Frank needs to help me, and I don't think the two of us would be able to get the woman out of there on our own. If Bill is with you, it might just work."

"But-"

"Q, I promise, it'll be fine." She said, cupping the girl's cheek and looking into her eyes. "Besides, I'm already pretty roughed up, a little more won't hurt me." She had intended it as a joke, but Quinn wasn't really laughing. She was going to say something when the guys crawled back into the hole, carrying a good rock.

"Alright, let's get this party started then," Santana said, quickly getting up from her place next to Quinn and moving over to the beam. Frank shrugged off his expensive vest – it was all worn out by now anyways – and set himself up next to Santana, who was already bending down to be able to get a good grip.

"Bill, next to the lower side of the beam with the rock. Shout when you think it's stable, then carefully try and get Hannah out. Hannah-", the woman tried to look to her side to see Santana, "-I know you're probably weak right now, so don't move and let us help you. You'll probably only make things harder if you panic, so don't panic. And if it hurts, you can shout, but if it hurts so much you want us to stop, just say 'applesauce'." The woman nodded, but Quinn looked at Santana with a questioning look on her face.

The Latina just shrugged it off. "It's a youth club-thing." She rolled up her sleeves and got ready. "Okay, on 3 – 1, 2, 3!"

Santana and Frank both held on tight to the beam and started to lift it. Slowly, Quinn could see the woman whimpering in pain, but she could also see that the beam was inching up, one millimetre at a time.

She saw that Santana and Frank were having a hard time, Santana having to hold onto the beam with only her left hand and her right elbow, seeing as her wrist was still pretty messed up. They were sweating by the buckets and breathing hardly, and Quinn just wanted to go over there and hug Santana, tell her to give up, but she didn't.

She stuck to her place, prepared to get the woman out of that hell, praying for all of them to get out of there in one piece.

"We're almost there, just a few more guys!" Quinn looked up to see Bill shouting at them, his eyes obviously focused on the beam and the leg, the boulder in his hand.

"Yes! Easy, keep it up, I'm going to shove the rock in! Just keep it steady guys!"

Santana and Frank were working hard to keep the beam up, obviously at the end of their wits, when Bill quickly but carefully placed the boulder, steadying it underneath the beam.

"Okay, you can softly let go, it should be kept in place."

The two of them softly dropped the beam, until it rested on the rock. Frank and Santana breathed a heavy sigh of relief, but Santana also took action right away.

"Okay-", she panted, still holding onto the thing, -"Frank and Bill, you pull the girl out softly. Quinn, go the her like and try to stabilize it. Hurry!"

Frank let go after het was sure Santana was able to steady it, and went with Bill to the girl's body, whilst Quinn moved over to the leg, reaching underneath the beam to be able to get to her ankles.

They had only started inching the woman out of there, when Quinn felt something crumble somewhere above her to her right, causing the beam to shift to her side, sliding away from the rock. Her heart nearly stopped in fear as she saw the beam move down on her, and she took a deep breath as realization hit her.

"_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"_


	9. Chapter 9

_They had only started inching the woman out of there, when Quinn felt something crumble somewhere above her to her right, causing the beam to shift to her side, sliding away from the rock. Her heart nearly stopped in fear as she saw the beam move down on her, and she took a deep breath as realization hit her._

"_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"_

Quinn closed her eyes in fear, waiting for the hit to come. She could hear Hannah scream, and Bill and Frank shout from somewhere behind her.

But the hit never came. She was waiting for the pain to come, but when it didn't, she still hardly dared to open her eyes. Her body was frozen in shock, and it was only when everything calmed down that she dared to breathe again.

"Santana…" Quinn could hear the shock in his voice as well, and it woke her up right away, causing her to look around her.

The beam was only a few inches away from her hands and Hannah's leg, but it was still lifted, even though it didn't look all that stable anymore. Hannah's leg was still free, and as she looked around her Quinn could see that besides shock, the girl was fine.

Both her, Frank and Bill were still frozen in place, but they were all looking in one direction: Santana's.

Quinn turned to look at the place where the Latina was apparently still standing.

"Oh god, Santana!" Quinn felt her eyes get wet at the sight. The small brunette was on her knees, pain obvious on her face. She must have placed herself underneath the beam's end the moment it began to fall, because the beam was now leaning on her right shoulder, her body almost buckling under the weight. Even in the dark, dusty place, she could see Santana's wounded hand shiver as it was trying to keep the beam in place.

"Shit, Santana let go!" Quinn wanted to get up from her place, but Santana stopped her in her steps.

"NO!" She was obviously struggling to talk, so she continued quickly. "By the time any of you has helped me with this thing, we will have dropped it or something. So just get her out quickly and fucking tell me when it's done so I can drop this shit."

The three of them were still in complete shock, but when Santana shouted "NOW!", they immediately went back into action, the guys pulling her as fast as they could without hurting her. Quinn was still stabilising the leg, but she couldn't help but sneak glances to her left, trying to see how Santana was holding up.

"Okay Santana, we're almost there!" Bill shouted, with only a few inches left.

"Just.. Hurry", came Santana's strained voice, and Quinn's heart broke.

_Let her get out of here, oh god please! She's gonna be crushed to death. Just get her out!_

"She's out! Santana, drop it she's out!"

They quickly pulled Hannah even further away from the beam, not bothered by the lack of space anymore now, so that Santana could drop it without having to worry about them.

Quinn looked on worriedly as she saw Santana struggle with the beam. She wanted to go and help her, to do _something_, but once more…

"Don't! Stay back, Quinn. You could get hurt!"

Quinn wanted to retort, but she knew Santana was right. She couldn't do anything. _Why can't the roles ever be reversed?_

Santana didn't really know how she was going to pull this off – _literally_. She really wanted to get rid of the stupid weight, it was seriously getting ridiculously heavy, but she didn't know how to do it without seriously hurting herself.

_Fuck – fuck – fuck, I can't do this. They're finally out of the way, but I just don't know how to do this shit. Think, Lopez, think! Just let it slide of or something… But what if it hits my leg? I'll never get out of here then… So I should literally jump to the left… which isn't exactly easy when you're on your knees… I need to get up a bit more, on my feet, and then throw it off… Right, piece of cake._

Quinn was shocked as she saw Santana try and move up. She wanted to ask her something, but she knew the Latina was the only one who knew how she was going to get the hell out of there.

Santana was struggling to lift herself up; the movement wasn't exactly helping with her other injuries. She wanted to at least have her right foot on the ground, so that leg wouldn't be left behind under the stupid beam.

_Okay, lifting… Come on foot, get under there… Come on, you got this… On the count of three. One – two – three…_

Santana pushed herself off on her right foot, pushing the beam off of her with all her power as she did so.

The others could see her push the thing off, the action followed by the loud crash of the beam falling to the ground, and a cloud of dust wafting up.

The four coughed loudly, waving the dust out of there faces. Quinn squinted her eyes, trying to find Santana. They couldn't see nor hear her, and Quinn especially was really starting to get worried.

"Santana?" She took a step forward, carefully, her hands in front of her, in case she hit anything. "Santana? Please, just say something!" She kept staring into the dark, dusty room as she came closer to the beam.

When she felt the beam against her foot, she shone her cell phone light to be able to see a bit further, but the dust made her unable to see much.

"Santana?" Her voice was much fainter now. She was seriously worried.

_What if she got stuck? Maybe she's completely crushed by the beam? Oh god, I don't even want to think about it. What if she-_

"*cough* Over here."

Santana was lying on the floor, her back against the wall. Quinn finally saw her move slightly, and immediately rushed to her side.

"Oh my god, are you okay? I mean, you're obviously not, but-"

"Q, relax, will ya?" Santana chuckled slightly, although her short laughter ended more in a cough than anything else. "I'm fine. I mean _obviously_" – eye roll – "I'm not." Even Quinn had to laugh now.

"I'm just dead beat, you know. Sleeping would be nice, maybe a hot bath, or some food. But I don't think I can really do that yet, so just help me up and let's get back to our group of misfits, shall we?"

Quinn smiled at the Latina's jokes, glad she seemed to be okay at least, except for the tiredness of course. She bent down to grab the girl's left hand, but was surprised when Santana pulled her next to her, hugging her close.

"Cuddling would also be nice right now", she whispered softly, her eyes lazily looking into the blonde's.

Quinn wrapped her arms around the small brunette, carefully cradling her close. "We can actually do that one, for a bit at least."

Santana leaned in and gave her a soft kiss. It was just a very sweet, loving kiss, making them both feel more relaxed than they had been the entire day, even though they were still lying in the middle of the rubble.

When they broke the kiss, they both had goofy smiles on their faces, and stared at each other for just a little while longer. Santana was the first one to break the silence.

"We should probably get going now. I'm glad Frank didn't interrupt us this time, but I'm pretty sure he's leering around the corner, waiting for an even more intimate moment before his obnoxious ass jumps in again."

They laughed as they started getting up again, Quinn holding the girl tight as she helped her up. But even though she was very careful, she could still see the Latina wince in pain as she got up.

"Shit, sorry San, did I hurt you?"

Santana couldn't help but smile at the girl's worried expression. "Chill, Q. Everything hurts right now, but just being with you is making it a hell of a lot better."

Quinn blushed at the statement, smiling. "Well aren't you suddenly the big romantic?" She nudged the brunette playfully. "What has gotten into you?"

The Latina smiled sadly. "I guess being nearly crushed by some stupid beam has made me realise that our time together is too short not to enjoy it, y'know."

Quinn's eyes went big in surprise, her smile never leaving her face. She swiftly pecked Santana on the cheek. "Aw, aren't you the sweetest. And don't worry," she took the girl's hand in her own, "I'll never ever let you go."

Santana's smile went sad again, but Quinn couldn't see her sadness for very long as the brunette threw herself in her arms and whispered softly.

"You better…"

Quinn wanted to ask about her weird response just now, but Santana had already taken her hand in hers again and started walking towards the hole that would lead them back to the group.

"There they are!"

With a bit of trouble, especially for Santana, the two crawled back through the hole, to see that the group was sitting close together. Hannah's leg was already bandaged and put in splints, and she looked a bit more at ease now that she wasn't stuck anymore.

"You alright, Santana?", Mary asked her, seeing that the girl looked extremely tired.

Frank shot in as well. "We heard you answer to Quinn, so we know you were pretty much okay, and we figured we'd give you some-" he wriggled his eyebrows suggestively "- alone time."

They all laughed at that, Santana and Quinn joining in on the laughter after a few seconds.

"I guess we weren't that subtle then, were we?"

The others smiled in response. "No, you weren't, but it's cool."

Frank moved forward a bit, and looked Santana straight in the eye. "If anyone deserves to find love in this hell-hole, it's you."

Santana blushed at his words, and felt Quinn squeeze her hand gently.

"Well," Santana answered, going back to her normal, sarcastic mode, "I don't think I'm the only who found love here, though, am I, Frankie?"

Now it was Frank's turn to blush and smile, looking at Fran, who was blushing fervently as well.

"I guess not, not. But still, Santana." His tone went serious again as he locked eyes with her. "You do deserve it, after all you've done for us. If you hadn't come along, we would still be stuck in that elevator, or we would've tried to go through the ceiling or something and we would've died. No-", he went on quickly as he saw the Latina try to speak up, "- you know I'm right. We would be dead without you. And I know that even now it isn't sure that we'll get out of here, but at least we know we can keep going now… And it's all because of you. So, I think I speak for all of us," he went on, looking around him now before making eye contact with Santana again, "when I say thank you. Thank you, Santana, for saving our lives. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts."

After his words, everyone went silent, and Quinn could see they all had tears in their eyes, including herself and Santana, and then Liz started clapping, and Ally and the teens joined in, and eventually they were all clapping loudly. Quinn stepped back as well and joined the group in their Santana-ovation, smiling and cheering her on as well now.

Santana was blushing hard and didn't dare look up at the others, not knowing what to say really. As their applause died down, she was still standing their quietly, so they waited for her to say something.

To their surprise, however, she suddenly came forward and threw her arms around Frank and Liz's necks, and soon they were all coming together, hugging and crying and laughing. They knew they weren't out yet, but in this moment, they couldn't care less. They were just happy.

Santana broke free from the many hands, and the group came back to their senses and gave each other some space again. The Latina subtly wiped away some stray tears, rolling her eyes at the same time.

"So.. I guess we're lucky that applause didn't cause another landslide of rubble, but I don't wanna risk being here when the ceiling does come down on us because of your stupid need to thank me."

They all smiled at her words; they'd been together long enough now to understand that Santana really appreciated it.

"So, I think we should get the hell going. That staircase should be somewhere around here, and I wants to get out of heres!"

"Yeah!" The others shouted enthusiastically, and were set to continue when Santana suddenly directed her attention to them again.

"One more thing, though, guys. You should all change that SOS text on your cell phones, 'cause they're gonna have to get 12 survivors out of here!"

And at that they went back on their way, full of hope of getting out.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Just wanted to say... I'm never using the word 'beam' again, ever.**

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Sorry about taking so long! I wanted to write more, but, you know: life. **

**This isn't the last chapter though, just so you know.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>"So…"<p>

Santana quirked her eyebrow at Quinn's word. They had started walking again a little while ago, the two of them holding hands as they struggled onwards, and after a couple of moments of comfortable silence between them Quinn was the first one to speak again.

"So?" Santana smiled, locking eyes with the blonde, making her smile in return.

"Nothing, it's just that…" She paused again, causing the smaller girl to roll her eyes.

"What is it? Just come out with it, Q, you know you're gonna tell me eventually."

Quinn sighed. "Fine, but… You're seriously going to laugh at me if I tell you this."

"Okay, now I'm curious, what is it?" When Quinn still didn't answer, she squeezed her hand and started walking even closer to her. "_What is iiiiit?_", she sing-songed in the girl's ear, causing her to chuckle.

"You're crazy you know that, but okay… We've had an elevator crash, we were almost crushed underneath rubble - twice! – we had to squeeze ourselves through a tiny hole, and we constantly had to remember that we might be dying here…" Santana looked shocked at her list, not knowing if she was really going to like whatever came next.

"But, I have to say, so far…" Quinn smiled at the Latina now, "this has been the best first date I've ever had."

Santana's eyes went wide in shock, but her surprise was quickly replaced by loud laughter as she really registered what Quinn had said. Between gasps, she was able to say something back to the blonde.

"Well, Q - *huff, laugh, huff* - I have to say,…" she paused to quickly and softly kiss the other girl's cheek, and whispered, "_the feeling's completely mutual._"

At that, she turned away blushing as she saw the smile on Quinn's face, but her laughter turned into a heavy coughing fit now, making Quinn frown in concern.

Santana let go of the blonde's hand as she used her left to cover her mouth, gasping for air.

As the coughs were gradually getting less pressing, the Latina looked up teary-eyed to see a bottle of water dangling in front of her. She quickly grabbed it and took a long swig, containing her coughs a bit better.

"Thanks, Q. I needed that one." She smiled at Quinn, obviously still struggling to hold the coughs inside.

"Don't worry about it. What's wrong, though? That didn't exactly sound like a normal cough." The blonde's voice was laced with concern, and her hand went to Santana's face to wipe away a few of the tears.

"Uhm,… Probably the dust I guess… You know, from earlier. I think I pretty much inhaled enough of it to never have to smoke for the rest of my life." She made an attempt at laughing, but Quinn could see by the way her jaw clenched that the smaller girl was still struggling; her breathing was very controlled, and as heavy as it could be without her having to cough again.

Santana saw the worried look on her face and quickly went closer to the blonde, intertwining the fingers of her left hand with Quinn's right again. She smiled sweetly as she made eye contact with the girl, trying her best to mask what was really going on.

"Seriously, Q, stop worrying so much," she said, her voice soft now as she locked her eyes with hazel ones. "It's just a cough, it's not like I'm on the verge of getting killed – again."

She playfully nudged the taller girl's elbow, smiling so brightly at her own joke that Quinn couldn't help but smile along.

"Fine, you're right, I guess. But you're going to a doctor the moment we get out of here, you hear me!"

Santana rolled her eyes. "Yes, mama, I will." She looked around her for a bit, her smiling fading slightly. "I'm guessing we all will…"

They were quiet again, absorbed in their own thoughts. What would be going on in the outside world right now?

_They probably think we're all dead, everyone in the mall. Would anyone else have survived? Maybe it was only the basement that was affected?_

Quinn looked around her for a bit.

_No, that's pretty much impossible Fabray, looked around you today yet? This doesn't just happen to the bottom of a building, but to the entire place. There are probably ambulances and cops all around the place, trying to get people out of the ruins… Rach and Britt, would they still be out there, hoping? Or would they assume… Oh God, no, they don't know I'm still alive! I wish I could let them know I'm okay._

She looked at her cell phone for the umpteenth time that day, hoping for a bar to show up, indicating that she had a signal.

Her eyes were trained on her background picture, when she noticed something.

_21u36… Valentine's is almost over… I hope we can get out of here before midnight. Maybe I could still celebrate with Santana a bit… In the hospital._

She chuckled to herself, putting her signal-less phone ahead of her again to light the way.

"Inside joke, huh? Care to share?" Santana was looking at her with an amused expression on her face, one eyebrow up questioningly and a smirk firm in place.

"Yeah, I was just wondering about something…" Santana's brows went up when she paused, indicating for her to go on. "You totally didn't answer my question earlier!"

Quinn was smiling deviously as Santana's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Okay, I've been able to follow your train of thoughts for the past couple of hours, but now you've seriously lost me… Whatcha talking about?"

Quinn grinned. "I'm talking about my question earlier, before we 'found' the first staircase, when I asked you why you were pretending to be invisible when we got in the elevator."

Quinn remembered Santana turning away at the question and hoped to get a reaction out of her now as well. And – _bingo!_ She could see a blush start to spread on her cheeks as she suddenly started walking a bit faster, looking at her feet the whole time.

The blonde grinned even wider at the otherwise so fierce Latina's reaction, and tugged at their still joined hands.

"Come on, _Sannie_." She smirked as the shorter girl looked shocked at the nickname, but still refused to make eye contact.

"…"

"What was that Sannie?" The blonde was really having fun now. They were still walking rapidly, away from the others, and Santana still hadn't looked up, but was mumbling something to the other girl.

"I said, - " Santana came to an abrupt stop, looking into the blonde's eyes defiantly, her head held high, but a blush still very visible on her cheeks. "Imaclosetgeek, okay?"

She had said it very fiercely and made to keep walking, but was held back by Quinn, who locked eyes with her again quickly, an amused smile on her face.

"Sorry, sweetie, but I didn't quite catch that. Care to explain?"

Santana sighed audibly, the self confidence she had earlier fading quickly.

Quinn saw her hesitance and decided she would stop messing with her. She tilted the dark haired girl's chin up with her fingers and smiled sweetly.

"It's okay to tell me, you know. I won't laugh… much."

Santana's face changed into a glare as she said that last part.

"Come on, San, I just meant that you can tell me anything, but with the way you're acting right now, I'm not sure if I'll be able to, you know,… Not laugh at you. But-" she continued as she saw the Latina open her mouth to protest, "- if I do laugh, it's because I like you so much. Okay?"

Santana rolled her eyes, gaining back her confidence, but still trying to look anywhere but in the blonde's eyes.

"Fine… I'm a closet geek." She said it slowly this time, but also very softly, so that Quinn had to lean closer to be able to hear her. "I just,… I come here every week, to the comic store, for, you know, comics and games, and… stuff."

She paused for a bit, and Quinn kept looking at her. _So adorkable…_ She squealed on the inside at her girlfriend's pouty face.

"So, you know, I try to be invisible, 'cause… I mean, seriously." She rolled her eyes nervously. "Being a nerd is so totally not good for my rep, you know. If people I know saw me…" She made a face at the thought, shaking her head, but her movement was quickly interrupted by the feeling of a set of lips on hers.

Quinn couldn't hold herself in anymore at all the cuteness she saw in front of her, and she just went for it. Of course, Santana didn't mind at all.

When they finally calmed down, Santana's arms had ended up around Quinn's neck, and the blonde's hands were still on the Latina's cheeks. They put their foreheads together, breathing heavily (especially Santana).

"Not that I don't appreciate the gesture," Santana chuckled, and Quinn along with her. "But, what was that for?"

Quinn smiled lovingly and pecked the girl softly on the lips again.

"That was because you" kiss "are just" kiss on the nose "too cute!"

She laughed out loud as Santana scowled and gently pushed her away.

"I am not!" She crossed her arms and pouted again. "Hot, maybe, sexy, fine. But _cute_? Oh, hell no!"

Quinn laughed at her antics, grabbing the Latina's face again and kissing her on the forehead.

"Oh, but you are! You're seriously _adorkable_!"

"Oh, please tell me you did _not_ just use the word 'adorkable'!"

Quinn laughed even harder, when the rest of the gang caught up with them.

"What's so funny?" Johnny asked it. _Wow, I think that's the first time he spoke tonight_.

Santana kept looking at Quinn angrily, whilst the blonde was supporting herself with her left hand on a rock, laughing loudly.

"It's just…" She continued laughing, her phone almost slipping out of her hand as she did so. She started calming down as she continued explaining. "Santana is just-"

They didn't know what Santana was, because Quinn suddenly went quiet, her face in shock.

"Q, what's-" They watched the blonde's shocked expression as she looked at her cell phone.

"_A bar_…" They all went completely silent. "Signal… I have a signal!"

They all went crazy at that.

"Oh my god, don't move!" – "Shit, quick, sent the SOS!" – "Oh my god, let me see,… No wait, don't move, just… Oh my god!"

They were all crazy messes, and looked at Santana to silently ask her what to do.

The Latina scraped her throat. Her heart was beating loudly in excitement as well. "Try and sent the message. You changed it to 12 people and not in the elevator anymore, right?"

Quinn nodded softly, she hardly dared to move a muscle in fear of losing the signal. She swiftly pushed her cell's buttons, and send the message to Rachel, who she was sure had her phone with her most of the time.

The next couple of seconds they were all quiet, waiting for Quinn to say something.

She watched her phone, and breathed out deeply as she saw the icon meaning that her message was sent.

"It got out… Message sent!" She turned to the group smiling, tears apparent in her eyes.

They were all smiling and fought the urge to jump up and down in joy. They dared hope a bit more now.

"Can you… You think you'll get any answer?" Mary asked, her voice shaking with tension.

"I… uh… I'm not sure. The signal is gone now." She moved her phone up and down, waving it above her, but the signal only came back for a few seconds before it went away again.

"Why do you think I suddenly got a signal at all?" She looked at the group asking it, but her question was mostly directed to Santana.

"I think it's because there's less rubble on top of us. I mean, we're heading for the outside staircase now, so with a bit of luck… We're getting close!"

They were all beaming now, and Santana could swear that she was hearing all their heartbeats speed up. Frank was the first to speak up again.

"We should keep going then! I haven't got any signal yet, but as we move on, maybe we will get more!"

They were all nodding, and Santana was very eager to go on as well. She just nodded as well and they all went on their way again, looking out for the door to the staircase that would lead them outside.

They hurried along now, all their fatigue seemed to have left them. Santana breathed heavily as she went on, but she and even Quinn didn't care right now. They all looked at their cell phones every two seconds, hoping for more signal.

Sometimes one of the group stopped, but apparently the signal went away as fast as it appeared, because they hurried along pretty quickly again, without any explanation needed.

"Guys…" They all looked up. Santana had stopped and was looking ahead of them, pointing at a door at the end of the corridor.

"Is that…" The question didn't even need to be finished. The green pictogram on the wide door was very obvious in the light of all their phones, so the group almost ran there. This was their goal, had been since they were trapped in that elevator. And now they were there.

The teens were the first ones to get to the door, and they threw it open, smiling. But their smiles quickly faded. Things could never just be easy.

When the others reached the door, they understood why the teens had paused suddenly, their shoulders slumped. The first flight of stairs was okay, but after that they could all see chunks of concrete and other rubble on the part in between.

They all stopped to look at the rubble, but Santana went on, tugging Quinn with her. They went through the doorway together, the Latina going up as far as she could, taking Quinn up on the first steps.

The others were staring at them from below, looking at Quinn and Santana, the latter continuing up to be able to see what the rest of the stairway looked like.

It was then that they heard a soft music play.

_Don't tell me not to live, _

_just sit and putter__  
><em>_Life's candy and _

_the sun's a ball of butter__  
><em>_Don't bring around a cloud _

_to rain on my parade _

Quinn's breath hitched. _Rachel!_

She quickly reached for her phone, and pressed the answer button with shivering hands.

Everyone was looking at her with big eyes as she picked up the phone. In the complete silence that surrounded them, they could hear the other girl loud and clear.

"R… Rach?" Quinn's voice was shaking slightly, thick with emotion.

"_Quinn? Oh my god, Quinn, is that you?"_

They all looked on in shock as they heard the first outside voice since they got stuck in the elevator.

"Oh god, Rachel, it's so good to hear you!" Quinn broke into tears, clutching her phone tightly to her ear.

"_I can't believe it… I knew you didn't die, I knew it!" _Quinn could hear her cry as well, and she just nodded in agreement.

"_I told you, Officer, that she wasn't dead!"_ That was Brittany's voice in the background. Quinn couldn't help but smile at her friends burst. _Wait a minute… Officer?_

"Rach, are you still around the mall?"

"_Yeah, of course! They wanted to send us away, but I wouldn't allow them to do that while you were still in there. And even though they produced a number of facts that were according to them 'evidence' to your death, I knew that you would in fact fight and- But how did you do that when you were in the basement, I-"_

"Okay, Rach, wait a minute. Explanations later, I want you to get us out of here now. Pass me the officer."

She could hear Rachel pass on the phone, and some squeals of her and Britt in the background, followed by a heavy voice.

"_Hello, Quinn I believe it was? You said in your SOS message that there were survivors in the basement? I'd like you to tell me your location, and status, as well as-"_

The cop went into a ramble about what he wanted, and Quinn's confusion must have been very obvious, because Santana went to her side and told her to hand her the phone, to which Quinn gladly obliged.

"Okay, listen up, copper. This isn't the time to use hard words of the police-lingo on us. We're tired, hurt, and seriously hungry. I'll tell you all you need to know, just let me do the talking for now, 'kay?"

The cop murmured a calm _"yes, of course_" at Santana's words, so Santana went and quickly explained the situation to him.

"Okay, so we've travelled from the elevator we were stuck in to the outer staircase that leads from the basement to the parking lot. We can't go up there, because the upper part of the stairway is blocked by rubble. There's 11 survivors, and pretty much all of them were hurt, so I suggest you bring a couple of ambulances here. Any questions?"

They could all hear the policeman shout instructions around, and were silent until they heard his voice again.

"_Got it. Some of my people are starting to clear up the rubble as we speak. I suggest you move downstairs as we work, to ensure your safety."_

Santana mumbled something about that so-called _safety_ of his, but did what she was told and joined the others together with Quinn. She looked into the blonde's eyes with her leader-mask on, but Quinn could see she was anxious too, probably about finally getting out. She smiled to herself.

_That's our leader alright, working till the end. Didn't think she'd make a mistake though. She should know there's 12 survivors, not 11. The stress must be getting to her too…_

It didn't take long before they could hear noises from up the stairs. At first, it was mostly the movement of rubble they heard, but as the work progressed, they could hear people shouting at one another, and even sirens in the background. It seemed surreal to them as they sat there waiting, like sounds from another world.

Suddenly, they saw a bright light come down the stairs, that shone in their faces. It was the most light they had seen since noon.

After that, everything went very fast, but Quinn saw the whole thing almost in slow-motion.

At one point the guy with the flashlight on his head shouted at some other people that "I FOUND THEM!", then others came down as well and helped them up.

Quinn remembered that one of them grabbed her arm, and that she had pulled Santana with her, their hands linked, as the rescue worker led the two of them upstairs.

She remembered the lights on her face that were used to shine on the exit of the stairs.

She saw the rubble around her, the ruins were the mall had once been.

She heard shouting, and saw her two friends behind a police line, shouting, and struggling to get to her.

She let go of Santana's hand for a second, and ran off to her friends.

She glanced behind her to see Santana still standing there, a sad smile on her face.

She noticed other people standing there, and others from her group run towards them.

She hugged Brittany and Rachel, tears of happiness on all there faces.

She remembered turning around to see Frank and Fran already with an ambulance, smiling at her happily but tiredly.

She saw Bill and Mary, the teens, the friends and all the others.

But when she turned to look for Santana, she noticed that the girl wasn't standing there anymore.

Santana was gone…


	11. Chapter 11

Quinn was sitting at a coffee booth in the city. She was lost in thought, waiting for her friends to finally show up. Valentine's day was only a couple of days away, and her head was flooding with memories of last year's Valentine's, when she met _her_-

_And lost her too_.

She sighed audibly as she replayed last year's events for at least the thousandth time in her head. She was able to block the memories after a couple of weeks after the mall had crumbled in, but because the one year-anniversary of that event was coming up, she couldn't stop thinking about it.

They had gotten out, they were finally out of the hell-hole. Everyone ran towards the doctors and rescue workers and friends. Everyone, including me, hurried toward the people waiting for us.

Except for Santana.

Quinn put her hands in her head, shutting her eyes tightly as regret flooded her.

_Why did I let go of her hand? Oh, god, why?_

After all this time, she couldn't even cry about it anymore. That horrible night she made her way back to the hole they had come out of, ignoring Brittany and Rachel's worried calls, but she was quickly intercepted by some kind of rescue worker that grabbed her and lead her into an ambulance.

Quinn had kicked and screamed, crying Santana's name. But the doctors just gave her a tranquilizer, explaining to her friends that she was probably just in shock about the whole experience.

_That wasn't even the problem, damn it!_

When she had finally come back to her senses, she was in a hospital bed, her friends right beside her.

* * *

><p><em>FLASHBACK<em>

Quinn blinked a couple of times. Everything around her was white, she had trouble making out any forms but she could see some people standing next to her.

_Where the hell am I? What happened? Where's-_

She sat up suddenly, regretting her own sudden movement as she felt a pain in her shoulder. The wound she had gotten earlier when the ceiling came down on them was bandaged now, but it seemed like the pain had gotten worse than when they were still in the basement of that stupid mall.

Two people quickly made their way to her side, and Quinn now realized Brittany and Rachel were the ones sitting by her bed. She was quickly engulfed in a hug by the two of them, and gladly hugged them back.

"_Hmhjmhmh_"

She couldn't help but chuckle as she heard the taller blonde mumble something in her hair.

"What was that, Britt?"

Brittany continued hugging her from the left side, with Rachel still nuzzled into her right side, but she moved her head up a bit so that Quinn could understand her now.

"I said, that I'm soooo glad you're okay, Q. We didn't know what was going on, and then you were out, but then you wanted to run again and they said you were shocking or something and we just-"

Quinn froze as Brittany remembered her of that night. The two girls noticed the blonde tense and sat up on her bed next to her, their eyes questioning her.

"Quinn?", Rachel asked tentatively. "Was there another reason why you had wanted to go back there?"

The hazel-eyed blonde took a moment to collect her thoughts. She took a deep breath before asking Rachel some questions.

"Rach… The, um,… Other survivors. Were they brought in here as well?"

Rachel slowly nodded. "Yeah, they figured it would be easier if the group stuck together, you know, for questioning, and-"

"How many?"

Rachel stopped talking as Quinn interrupted her, looking at her with her brows furrowed.

"What do you-"

"How many survivors were brought in here?"

Rachel glanced at Brittany before answering, concern obvious on her face.

"Well… The officer said you had told him there were 11 survivors on the phone, so they made sure all 11 of them were brought in here."

Quinn's jaw tightened at that, and her hands clenched into fists, turning her knuckles white.

_No way… Where- How- What the hell is going on?_

"Quinn, are you okay?" Brittany put her hand on the girl's, obviously stunned at her friend's distress.

Quinn was doing her best to keep the tears in. She had no idea if she was scared right now, sad, angry at Santana or angry at herself.

"_There were 12 of us_", she hissed, looking at a spot on the wall, avoiding eye contact with her friends.

"No sweetie", Rachel put her hand on the blonde's shoulder now. "There were only 11 of you, you told us on the phone. There was no one left on the premises after you were put in the ambulance."

Quinn shook her head. This couldn't be true. Did she imagine it? Did she imagine meeting the love of her life? Tears were dripping out of her eyes by now, but she didn't care.

She had a fierce look in her eyes as her head shot up. She had to know. He would know.

She looked into Rachel's eyes.

"Was a guy called Frank brought in?"

Rachel was startled at the question. She wanted to ask Quinn why, but at the fierce look in the girl's eyes she could only nod.

"Eh, yeah… He's been around here a few times already, but we told him you were still asleep, because, well… you were. The last two times he was pretty – eh – excited, but in a bad way, I guess, and he just rushed in and out, telling us to alert him when you were awake. But I don't think we should, though, he looked pretty frantic and I don't think that in your situation-"

"Get him for me."

Rachel locked eyes with Brittany in surprise.

"Are you sure you want-"

"Rachel, please," Quinn was honestly pleading now, tears still in her eyes. "Get him for me, I… I have to know."

Rachel nodded and quickly went out the door to find the guy. Quinn was left with Brittany. The taller blonde still had her hand on Quinn's, and she looked like she was about to ask her something.

"Quinn, why-" Her cautious question was interrupted by someone storming into the room, closely followed by Rachel, who was obviously not pleased by the guy's behaviour.

Quinn couldn't help it, but she was really glad to see Frank. Even though she had know Rachel and Brittany a lot longer, he was a familiar face she needed to be able to understand what the hell was going on.

He was at her bedside in only a couple of seconds, and planted his hand on her shoulder, looking her into the eyes. He was also dressed in some type of hospital robe, but Quinn ignored that because of the serious look in his face.

That look told her everything, but she still waited for him to say the dreaded words.

He opened his mouth a couple of times, seeing the fear in Quinn's, and eventually he dropped his gaze to her bed, knowing that she didn't understand either.

"She's gone, Quinn. They never brought her to the hospital. I explained the cops, the doctors, that there was supposed to be one more person. But they didn't believe me. Said I was hallucinating or something.. That you told them on the phone there were only 11 of us. And I know-" he said, when he noticed that she wanted to interrupt, "I know _she_ was the one who told them, I know."

He looked up at her, his tired blue eyes as teary as hers now, and he ran his hand nervously through his hair.

"Santana's gone, Quinn, and nobody knows where she is…"

_END FLASHBACK_

* * *

><p>Quinn sighed again, and took her hands from underneath her to have another sip at her coffee.<p>

They had explained everything to Rachel and Brittany, who believed them as they saw the hurt in their eyes. Rachel had even gone up to the police again to demand that they look for the Latina. But the cops were to busy helping other people who were also hit by the building. There were just too many victims for them to care about, so they just let it be.

The next day, all of the survivors – but one, of course – came into Quinn's room, all looking down, sad and gloomy.

They were saved, sure. _She_ had saved them, like she had promised. But then she was gone, and they didn't understand it. Where had she gone? Why had she done it?

They knew there must have been a reason for her to bail on them, but they just couldn't get it. They all mourned her loss, like the loss of a best friend.

Or, in Quinn's case, the loss of her one true love.

"Hey."

Quinn felt a hand on her shoulder, and softly smiled up at the two sets of brown and blue eyes looking at her.

"Hi guys."

They looked at her tentatively as they sat down.

"How are you feeling, sweetie?"

Brittany asked it. They had helped her get through the first horrible months without Santana. The three of them, together with Frank and Fran, were looking around, searching on websites to fin something about a Santana. But without her last name, and because of some other more famous 'Santana', they couldn't come up with anything decent.

She had let it fall after that, still reading the papers meticulously of course, but not looking like her life depended on it anymore, and she had started dealing with her loss.

Now, however, all her feelings came back again as memories flooded her brain. And her friends knew it.

"Fine, I guess… Can't stop thinking about her, though, with _that_ day coming up and all."

They nodded in understanding. Of course they knew what day she was talking about. Whereas the blonde used to love Valentine's Day, now she couldn't even say the word without feeling empty inside.

Her two friends got this, and avoided the topic as much as possible. Especially the topic of Madame Soleil, the medium that they idolized even more after Quinn had told them about Santana. Quinn didn't want to hear it, but obviously the woman's prediction had been right.

Brittany had pointed it out a few days after, when Quinn finally gave them the book she had bought in the mall _that_ day. But the smaller blonde was just pissed at the suggestion, and demanded that they never talked about that again either.

So they didn't.

Even though the last couple of predictions might be interesting for Quinn, just like last year's was, they didn't say a word.

"So…" Brittany said, after a bit of an awkward silence. "Have you guys heard about that movie? I mean, seriously, Puss in Boots sounds great. I already told Lord Tubbington that he definitely should come with us to watch it! What do you think?"

After that, their conversation went on a lot more easily, and they went back to normal, Quinn almost forgetting about what had happened.

Almost.

Suddenly, the sound of a phone ringing was heard.

_We found love in a hopeless place,_

_We found love in a hope-less place,_

_We found love in a hopeless place,_

_We found love in a hope-less place,_

The two other girls went silent as Quinn quickly looked for her phone. After almost half a year of silence, she couldn't believe that he would just call her right now, out of the blue. But she was right.

It was Frank.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: It's not very long, but I really had to write on after reading your reviews. I seriously couldn't stand the thought of anyone thinking that my awesome Santana wasn't real.**

**So there, no imagination, no ghost, just a bit of mystery ;)**


	12. Chapter 12

"Hello?"

"Quinn, it's Frank!"

Quinn looked at the other two girls, who were eyeing her worriedly. She nodded in affirmation and mouthed "_It's Frank_". At that, Rachel and Brittany were suddenly at the tips of their chairs, trying to get as close to Quinn as possible to be able to hear what Frank would say.

"_Hey_… er. Hey, Frank, what's the matter?"

"Are you free right now? In the city? Can we meet up somewhere?" Frank was talking really fast, and it was clear to Quinn that he was very excited about something – she just couldn't tell whether it was a good thing or bad.

"Yeah, I'm free, but…"

"Okay, great," Frank interrupted her quickly. "You know that florist between 26th and 7th? Meet me out front in ten, okay? Can you make it that fast?"

"Well, yeah, I guess, but… Frank, is everything okay?"

"Fine, yeah, fine," he said hurriedly. "Just get over here, _fast_."

At that he hung up, and left Quinn and her friends staring at each other for a few seconds, dumbfounded.

"What was _that_?" Brittany asked it. She and Rachel had obviously heard almost everything.

Quinn just shook her head, indicating that she didn't have a clue, and Rachel was finally the first one to snap out of her stupor.

"Well, whatever it was, he sounded pretty nervous, and whatever it was, I'm guessing we won't find out until we get there. So let's get going, stat!"

The three of them hurriedly left and hailed a cab to get them to the flower shop. When they got there, they could see Frank, as always in his fancy suit, but instead of his usual confidence, he was wearing a rather nervous look now, jumping up and down slightly.

They ran up to him. When he recognised them, they could see his face flood with relief.

"Quinn, finally." He hugged her tightly, catching her by surprise. After getting over the initial shock, she wrapped her arms around him tightly as well. She had really missed the guy.

"It's good to see you again, Frank. You remember Brittany and Rachel?" She smiled at him sweetly.

"Yeah, hey again, guys." He smiled at them, and Brittany waved back, but Rachel apparently decided she didn't have time for pleasantries.

"Okay, seriously, that is enough. Frank, I do believe we have come here for a very specific reason, and I do not see why we are standing here, chatting away, when you seemed rather extremely nervous on the phone?" Her voice was getting higher pitched at the end, and she was pretty much standing on her toes in excitement.

Frank snapped back to the present, his eyes wide open.

"Right, yes! Of course! Dammit, thanks Rachel." He snapped his head in Quinn's direction and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Quinn, before I tell you anything, I just want you to know I'm not sure of anything I'm about to say, and I didn't dare check out if I was right before you were here, in case she might run off again or something."

Quinn felt her heartbeat quicken as he talked.

_Is he talking about Santana? Run off again… He's definitely talking about her! What's going on? Did he see her? Where is she? Fabray, stop staring and start asking!_

"Where is she?" She blurted it out, still in shock. She felt Frank's hands press into her shoulders, and now also Brittany's hand squeezing hers hard. "Frank, where is she?"

She raised her voice now, her eyes full off… The thousand emotions she was feeling at that particular moment.

Frank turned his head to the other side of the crossroads. He pointed at the terrace of the book café.

"There, the one in the black blouse?"

Quinn didn't even need any directions. The moment he had turned his head, she had seen her. The raven-haired girl had her hair in a tight pony-tail, and was sitting with her back to them, obviously reading something.. But even from afar, Quinn knew it was Santana. She just felt it would be her.

She wanted to run across the street right away, her eyes trained on the Latina, but Brittany's hand held her back.

"Britt, what the hell?" Quinn yelled it out angrily. All she had on her mind was Santana, and now Brittany was holding her back from seeing the girl?

"Quinn, think for a minute! That's a road you're trying to cross. And you know those come with cars! Do you want to appear in front of your girlfriend flat as a fig?"

Quinn looked at her like she had grown two heads. "Flat as a… What are you-?" It was only then that she noticed that there were cars racing right next to her. She contained herself again.

"Oh, right… Thanks Britt." She murmured, looking at her friend in thanks.

Brittany's worried face lighted up immediately. "No problem. Now, let's go get your girl, shall we?"

The street was clear now, so they could cross pretty easily and the four of them ran to the café. But when they reached the sidewalk, Quinn stopped suddenly, causing the others to bump into her.

"Quinn, what's going on?" Rachel asked it, her eyes focused on the wide-eyed blonde.

"This can't be happening," she heard Quinn say. "She's gone again!"

They all looked ahead now, and saw that there was indeed nobody left at the table where Santana had just sat a few minutes earlier.

"No way." Frank was standing next to her, staring at the same spot. "But… but she was there! She was, just 5 freaking seconds ago!"

Rachel was looking left and right, scanning the environment. "This isn't possible. She is nowhere to be seen! She cannot just have regularly gotten up and walked away, unless she had wheels underneath her shoes!"

Frank and Quinn started looking around as well now, noticing that Rachel was completely right. They frantically searched every person, to see if anyone even remotely resembled Santana, but didn't come up with anyone.

"Uhm, guys?"

Brittany was standing next to the Santana's table, and tried to get the others' attention.

"I think I found something." The three others hurried to her side.

"Is it her?" "Where is she?" "What is it Brittany?" They asked it at the same time, but the only question Brittany could answer was the last one.

"I don't know where she is, but I did find something." She held up a book.

"A book? At a book café? Brilliant, just great,-" Frank's rambling was interrupted by Quinn. Frank apparently still thought Brittany was a bit of an idiot, but she knew better than to doubt the taller blonde.

"What about the book, Britt?"

At Quinn's words, Britt stopped 'glaring' at Frank, and smiled excitedly at the smaller blonde.

"Right, look Q, it's the book she was reading!" She beamed as she gave it to Quinn.

"_Waiting for the Barbarians_? That's great, B, but it doesn't really help, does it?"

"Of course it doesn't!" She was still smiling, while the three others just looked deflated. "No, no, you don't get it! It doesn't help now, because it's closed. Open it!"

Rachel interjected. "Britt, I really don't think opening that book will aid us in any-"

"Shh, Rachel, now's not the time to babble," Brittany quickly shot in, "look at the first page, Quinnie!"

Quinn opened the book and looked at the first page. Her hands started to shiver almost instantly. There, on the inside of the cover, was a message, obviously hurriedly written:

_Q?_

_0431/0537299_

_S_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: This is probably the shortest chapter I've done, so I'm sorry, but I just wanted to get this posted really. With a bit of luck, I'll be able to update again pretty quickly, yay.**_  
><em>


	13. Chapter 13

Quinn was pacing back and forth in her appartment. After getting Santana's message, she and her friends were completely dumbfounded.

Rachel had wanted to call her right there and then, and started rambling about possible reasons for Santana's departure, and how she could have gotten away that fast.

"_Maybe she's some kind of special agent, with a secret identity, or maybe a superhero, or maybe she has some type of deep, dark secret, or maybe…"_

She had kept on summing up the most implausible reasons, until it went that far that even Brittany thought her ideas were too fantastical.

Frank had actually been following her ideas with great interest, and had also been urging Quinn on to call her right away, or even offered to call Santana instead of her, so that he could give her a piece of mind.

Quinn had been too baffled to respond at first, and couldn't answer any of the questions after she got over the initial shock, because her friends didn't even stop their incessant rambling to breathe.

It was Brittany, again, who eventually came to the rescue, in her own Brittany-way. She turned her back on the two blabbermouths, engulfed Quinn in a bear-hug, and whispered softly in her ear.

_It'll be okay, Quinn. Don't listen to Rachel's weird theories. I don't think my leprechaun would even be able to follow the cotton candy in her head. I think you should just go home, relax, and then call her. You know you want to, even if she's acting all weird and stuff. Okay?_

And then she had let go and given her a sweet smile, and Quinn had started on her way home, ignoring Rachel and Frank's calls, and glad that Brittany had apparently stopped them from coming to her.

That's how she had gotten here now, walking back and forth in her apartment, clutching the book to her chest.

She had typed in the numbers on her cell a hundred times by now, but kept pressing the delete button.

_I can't do this. What do I say? What will _she_ say? She left me, she just _left_ me, and now she's just sitting on a freaking terrace looking all fine and dandy, like nothing ever happened at all. And then she leaves me, _again_! Breaking my heart, _again_!_

She stopped her mental cursing for a moment and paused her steps, looking at the book in her hands.

_Okay, fine, so this time she didn't _just_ leave me. She wanted to contact me in some way… But if she wanted to do that, why didn't she just stay where she was and talk to me? This is seriously so freaking confusing! _

She started walking again, and typed the number in her phone for the hundred-and-first time. Her mind was racing again, and before she even registered what she was doing, she accidentally pushed the green button instead of the red, and the dial tone rang through the silent air of the apartment.

_Oh, sh-_

"_Hello_?"

Quinn froze. She had never thought she would hear that voice again. And now, after almost a year of complete silence, she heard it. She gasped audibly, staring at the phone.

"_Quinn? Is… Is that you?"_

The blonde snapped out of her daze when she heard her name. Santana's voice was soft as she asked the question, and Quinn's heart melted at the sound. She almost forgot about the phone in her hand, and didn't realize she had been quiet for too long.

"_Um, okay… Since you're not answering, I'm guessing that you're still mad at me, and I get it, so I'll just… Let you be, you know. Bye-"_

"NO!"

Quinn hastily interrupted. She did _not_ want the girl to go away again, not now she finally had her in some way at least.

"Don't… Don't go… Not again…"

She sounded really weak as she said that, and sank to the floor against the back of the couch.

"_Quinn…"_

"I can't believe I'm finally hearing you again, San. I thought… We thought you were…"

A silence followed and Quinn felt old tears sting her eyes. She couldn't bring herself to say it.

"_Dead?"_

Santana obviously did not have this problem, and Quinn felt like crying again, but forced herself to keep control. She had heard the sadness in Santana's voice, and this time, she wanted to get to the bottom of things.

"Yeah, exactly. What were you thinking Santana? What happened? Why did you suddenly disappear on me? Did our relationship really mean that little to you? Or-"

"_NO!"_

This time it was Quinn's turn to be interrupted. It was just one syllable, but the blonde could hear Santana's voice crack on the other side of the phone.

"_Don't think that, Quinn, don't ever think like that! I didn't leave because our relationship meant only that little to me, but because it meant that _much_!"_

Quinn let the words sink through. "So, it was some kind of fear of commitment? You were afraid of what we had so you decided to call it off like that? 'Cause if that's the reason, I _really_ don't think I can talk to you right now!"

She was getting seriously pissed thinking about it. They had all thought Santana was dead, or part of some kind of sect or something that would make her run.

_If it was just some silly freaking fear, she could have just sent us a message, anything, to show she was alive! This was just… AAH!_

"_Quinn, no… That's not what it was, honest! I _wanted_ to commit to you! I wanted some kind of happily ever after for us! It's just the ever after part that would have been a problem."_

She had mumbled that last part, but Quinn had heard it clearly, and she felt her anger fade away. What did she mean by that?

"Santana, what do you-"

"_Don't ask me, Q, not yet. I want to tell you, honestly, just… I don't think it would be okay oer the phone."_

Quinn nodded softly, before she realized Santana couldn't see that.

"Okay then… Can I ask you something else though?"

"_Sure, shoot!"_ Quinn could hear a bit more enthusiasm in her voice now.

"Okay, so, why did you run earlier? And, like, how? Rachel thinks you must be some kind of ninja-super-CIA-agent because of that."

She could hear a chuckle on the other end, followed by a short silence. She knew it is impossible, but she could swear she heard the girl blush through the phone.

"Santana…", Quinn sing-songed teasingly. "You promised you'd answer!"

"_I did not!"_, Santana scowled, _"but fine, I guess I kinda owe you for not pressuring me. It's just, I was… Nervous I guess, and kind of… scared? Yeah, scared."_

Quinn was baffled at the statement, but kept quiet, hoping it would encourage the girl to continue.

"_I had pretty much given up on you after I couldn't find you, 'cause, you know, I didn't know your last name and all, and I'd pretty much expected to never see you again… So when I was just sitting at the book café, I thought I heard your voice, but pretty much didn't think anything of it. I mean, I had fake heard your voice before, so I figured it was probably another wishful thinking thing. But then I heard another girl say your name, and I just… I kind of stopped thinking but thought too much at the same time, you know? And I figured you had a girlfriend and that you might have seen me, but I didn't want to talk to you personally if you did have a girlfriend, and then I just put my message in the book and took my stuff and hid out in the bathroom inside."_

_So no ninja-moves_, Quinn thought.

"Santana, Brittany's just a friend of mine…"

There was a short silence on the other end again.

"… _Really?"_

"Yes, really! I haven't been able to forget about you, San. I wanted to _be_ with you, I wanted to be your girlfriend and-"

"_Girlfriend?"_

Quinn had just flopped that out, and she couldn't really make out the emotion that was laced in Santana's voice. Was it fear? Hope?

"Yeah, girlfriend… I mean, I know we just, you know, kissed and everything and held hands and stuff, and that we never really officially used the G-word, but I kinda figured that we were- I mean, we could be… girlfriends."

"…"

"What was that, San?" Quinn was worried. It sounded like Santana was crying, but even in the hell-hole last year she hadn't really cried.

"_*sniff* I want to see you… D'you think we can… Meet up or something? Sometime? Quinn?"_

Quinn's heart started beating seriously fast at Santana's words, and she thought it was beating so hard and loud even Santana should be able to hear it through the phone. She noticed then that Santana was still waiting for an answer.

"Yes! Yes, I'd love to meet up. Are you free tomorrow? For dinner maybe? Or not dinner, if that's like moving too fast. Maybe drinks then? At my place? Or if you think that-"

"_Quinn!"_ Santana chuckled on the other end, stopping Quinn's attempt at a new world record in fast-talking. "_Chill out, okay. It's a Sunday tomorrow, so how about we go out for lunch or something? Then we can still have the afternoon to talk, and… stuff."_

Quinn breathed again. An afternoon is less date-like, so she won't have to worry about that. All she'll have to be nervous about is what Santana has to say about her leaving, but she's pretty sure by now that Santana'll be equally nervous, so it should be fine.

She sighed and smiled. "That sounds great. How about that sandwich bar next to the park? At 1?"

"_Perfect."_ She could swear she could hear Santana smile through the phone. _"I'll see you tomorrow then?"_

"Yeah, tomorrow. Bye, San."

"_Bye Quinn"_ She was about to hang up when she heard Santana's voice again._. Oh, and Quinn?"_

"Yeah?" She quickly put her phone to her ear again.

"… _I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing your voice."_

Quinn felt butterflies in her stomach, and they were going crazy when Santana finally hung up.

_This is going to be a long night…_


	14. Chapter 14

Quinn was jumping up and down nervously. She had been standing at the park since half past 12, and as 1 O'clock was nearing closer, she was seriously getting cold feet.

_Don't tell me not to-_

"Yes Rachel?" She had been holding her phone in her hand so tightly, that she didn't need to hear the rest of the song to know who was calling her.

"_Is she there yet? Are you alright? Are you absolutely certain that you do not want me to come over? Brittany and I would be glad to come if you told us where you are, and come and support you and-"_

"Rachel!" Quinn quickly interrupted her. "No, she isn't here yet, it's still 15 minutes until 1. And I definitely don't want you or Britt to come, you would pester the girl scare her off and I'd never get to know anything. So just stay put, and wait until I call _you_. DON'T call me again, because if you dare interrupt us then I swear-"

"_Interrupt you, huh? *giggle*"_ Brittany, of course, had taken the phone from Rachel as she heard that.

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" But in her head, Quinn couldn't help but think exactly what Brittany thought she had meant.

_No! Now is not the time to think like this! It's been a year since I've seen her, I'm still kind of angry and sad and I am NOT thinking about her gorgeous body, and those lips, and… DAMN IT, BRITTANY!_

"Listen, guys, I'm going to hang up now, and I mean it: you do _not_ call me, understood?"

"_Yes ma'am!"_, She could hear the two say in unison.

"Good, … So, … Wish me luck?" She said the last part hesitantly. She still didn't really know what to expect.

"_Good luck, sweetie. It'll work out, I promise!"_

Quinn smiled. Her friends were nosy, but really great at the same time. Her smile faltered when she saw a familiar head of raven hair walk into the sandwich bar at the other side of the road.

"Thanks, but uh… I gotta go, she's here! She's here, shit!"

"_Quinn, breathe. Just relax, everything will work out. We're rooting for you! And don't cross the road without looking out for cars first!"_

She smiled again at that. "Thanks, B. See ya!" She hung up and made her way over to the bar, of course not without checking for cars this time.

When she walked in, she didn't even have to look for the Santana; she spotted her tight ponytail right away, and started walking over to her slowly.

_So, ehm… Breathing, check… Walking over to her, check… Put smile on face, check… Stop shaking,… So _not_ check! I can't do this, I can't do this! What am I gonna say to her? Or do? Slap her? Shake hands? I can't do this!_

Quinn kept repeating her mantra in her head, approaching the other girl, who was wearing a black blouse again, slowly, when she suddenly noticed something.

Was Santana… _shaking?_

She stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed Santana's hands fidgeting in front of the girl, and obviously shaking hard.

_Wow…_, she breathed to herself, still too shocked to move. _The Santana that was able to save 11 people out of an elevator, that was able to throw off an extremely heavy freaking _beam_, is sitting here, shaking,… Because of me._

She wasn't sure how to feel about this. I mean, it could be because what Santana would tell her would be awful, or that she was afraid of Quinn being angry, because she had every right to be, but the blonde didn't really think that. She hardly dared to hope it, but…

_She could be shaking because she still likes me, right?_

She was still staring at the Latina, when the other girl's entire body started fidgeting now as well, and eventually turned around.

The two girls locked eyes in shock.

Quinn was already dumbfounded, but now that they were actually looking each other in the eye, she felt as though the earth had stopped moving around her.

For the first time in a year, she could see the face she – well – loved again, and for the first time _ever_ she could see the girl's face in daylight, without needing the light of her phone, without the rubble and the dirt.

And she looked even more beautiful than Quinn remembered.

They kept staring at each other, mesmerized, neither girl moving, almost having some kind of conversation just with their eyes.

Santana was eventually the first to feel the need to break the heavy silence.

"Uhm, hi…" she chocked out, smiling slightly at the blonde girl in front of her.

The moment she had said that tiny word, Quinn couldn't take it any longer, and this time she didn't even think about what she was supposed to do when she saw Santana again.

With tears in her eyes she went up to her, bowed down to the level of the chair and threw her arms around her.

She started sobbing when she felt Santana recover from her initial shock and hug her back.

"_You're here_", Quinn murmured, "_You're alive… I'm touching you again… You're _here_!_"

Santana started sniffling as well as her hands rubbed up and down Quinn's back.

"Yeah, Q…" She whispered into the other girl's ear. "I'm here,… _Here to stay_…"

After they sat like that for a while, neither wanting to let go of the other, they were interrupted by a small cough.

"Ehm, I hope I'm not interrupting, but if you wanna sit here, you'll have to eat something, you know. This isn't a cry bar, but, like, a sandwich bar and stuff."

Some kind of teenage waitress was looking at them with one eyebrow lifted, so the girls reluctantly let go of each other. Santana was the first to recover.

"Ugh, fine then, just make us two sandwiches, and make them _to go_, 'cause with the way you're treating your customers, we don't exactly wanna stay here anyways."

The waitress blushed furiously, but did take down their orders and hurried to the kitchen. Santana and Quinn went to the counter to pay, neither of them talking. Santana was obviously pissed that they were interrupted, and Quinn couldn't help but smile at the girl's adorableness.

"What?" Santana scowled, not understanding why the blonde was smiling after their moment was ruined.

"You're just too cute." Quinn smiled even brighter as she said it, whereas Santana's mouth fully hung open by now, her scowl deepening.

"Wait what? No I'm not!"

"Sweetie, you're totally pouting!", Quinn chuckled.

"I am not!", she said, whilst obviously pouting.

"Really?"; Quinn answered amusedly, "Then what do you call this?" She said the last part while rubbing her thumb across Santana's pouty lip.

The Latina suddenly blushed at the touch, and was glad the waitress chose that exact time to come back with their sandwiches so she could pay and get away from the intimacy. The effect Quinn had on her was seriously to great, and even though she loved it, it had been a really long time she had been craving that touch, and besides: she knew she couldn't win the discussion.

After she had paid for both their sandwiches, not listening to Quinn's protests, they went to the park together and sat down on a bench, looking out on the pond.

They at in silence for a little while, but Santana pretty much stopped eating at some point, and started fidgeting. Quinn noticed but didn't say anything for a while, until it became obvious that Santana wouldn't stop worrying, so she decided to just confront the girl.

"Just say it, San…"

The Latina almost literally jumped in her seat at Quinn's voice. She snapped her head towards the blonde, eyes wide open, and opened her mouth, only to close it again. She kind of looked like a fish, but this time Quinn didn't even feel like laughing at her.

"Just relax, S… It's just me, y'know?" Quinn threw her an encouraging smile as she said that, tilting her head to the side. At that, Santana looked down to her hands, still holding the stupid sandwich. She put it down next to her, focused her eyes back to her hands in her lap and sighed.

"It's not _just_ you, Q… It's _you_… What I'm about to tell you… It's pretty hard telling anyone, so I usually don't, but just because it's _you_… *sigh*… This is so hard…"

Quinn swallowed. She was getting nervous now. Santana still refused to meet her gaze, and she talked so softly that the blonde could hardly understand anything she said. But she had already decided that whatever Santana said, she would be able to get through this, so she grabbed the girl's hand for support.

Santana looked at their intertwined hands in surprise, swallowed, and started her story.

"You remember when we met? In that elevator? The way I was dressed, y'know,… invisibly?"

"Yeah, I remember… You said you didn't want people to see you, because you were being a geek." How could she not remember that. Santana had blushed furiously when she had told her. It was kind of cute.

"Yeah, well…" Santana started fidgeting with her hands again. "That was not the only reason I wanted to be invisible."

Quinn frowned at that. What did she mean?

"I didn't want to be seen there, but not just because I'm a total nerd, but… I couldn't see anyone, I didn't want to talk to anyone I knew, they couldn't see me, because… I knew I might never see them again, and I figured that if I talked to anyone, I'd probably just break down…"

Quinn's frown deepened. What was Santana talking about? _Was she supposed to move away or something? She did look kind of sad when I first saw her, but…_

"San, what do you mean?" Quinn had to ask when Santana went silent again.

The Latina sighed deeply, and looked Quinn in the eyes for just a second as she went on.

"I had a brain tumour, Q… They discovered it that morning, and I was… It was pretty serious… I was supposed to go in for surgery that afternoon, but… things happened."

Quinn looked on in shock as Santana turned her gaze back to her lap and started telling the story.

* * *

><p><em>FLASHBACK<em>

_I can't believe this…_

Santana was walking away from the hospital in a haze. This could not be happening. When she had gone to the hospital a week earlier with a severe headache that had been bothering her for a while, she had not expected _this_ to happen…

She remembered the doctors words vaguely. How she should have come after the first week of headaches, even if she didn't like hospitals. How her work was no reason for her not to check up after a month of headaches. How after the first time she fainted behind her computer she should have come in for a check-up. How it was urgent now, and that she had to stay in the hospital so that they could have her surgery at 2pm.

She was glad she got them to let her outside until then. She had to tell them where she was going, just "out to clear her head" was apparently not a good answer.

_They act like I could drop dead any second now, fucking- Ugh… It's not their fault, Lopez, it's yours._

She figured she might as well go to the mall in that case. She had told them she wanted some comics, for when she "woke up". It was wishful thinking, really. She knew the odds of her waking up were small, but the books would at least let her forget about everything for a minute.

_Or I could just forget about everything after surgery, y'know. All my memories and shit. My languages… Damnit!_

She kicked a can in front of her angrily. Forgetting her memories, fine. She didn't have all that many good ones anyways. But forgetting her languages… She had worked so hard at them, they were the only things she was any good at, and now she could forget them? Hell no!

_It's a good thing I'll probably die anyways, I guess…_

Her shoulders slumped again and she continued walking. She checked her hood again before thrusting her hands in her pockets. She _really_ didn't want to meet anyone right now. Her friends, her colleagues… She thought about them.

_So maybe I do have a few good memories…_ _Shit…_

Meeting Puck or Sam right now would probably kill her. Or Mercedes… She was honestly hoping none of them had decided to come to the mall today. She hadn't cried yet, and she really didn't want to cry right now.

When she entered, she looked to the floor as she went straight to the elevator and headed to the basement. She knew where she wanted to be and sighed deeply as she entered the familiar comics-store.

_I'm gonna miss this place…_

She browsed through the comics like she always did, but this time she didn't give herself a limit. _Who cares about money at a moment like this anyways._

She grabbed a couple of the most flashy looking books, and paid for them straight away, completely filling up her backpack as she had done so.

When she walked out, her mind was on the money again. Not on the money she had just spend, but on the money for the surgery.

_I can pay it, I guess, but what happens when I die? Do they go to my parents to get the thing paid? Ha, they'll be happy to see 'em coming. 'Hi, I'm sorry to bother you, but the daughter you have refused to talk to since you kicked her out 5 years ago has died and we need someone to pay for her costs. Could you…? No?... 'K, thnx, bye.'_

She laughed a bit to herself at the sad thought. Her parents had kicked her out when she was 17 because she had been forced to come out of the closet, and their peanut-brains hadn't been able to handle it.

She stepped into the elevator with a sad look on her face, and hung her head low as she thought of what was to come now that she had to go to the hospital… She saw a cute blonde looking at her, smiling, and she smiled back without thinking, before quickly looking away again.

_Wow, Lopez, smooth… About to die and thinking of flirting with a hot blonde, just… genius…_

Her shoulders slumped even more when she thought that, and she didn't even feel like bitching to the obnoxious dude in a suit who was talking annoying business in such a loud voice that she thought she could feel the elevator shake with the noise.

_Shit, that's not just the guy's voice!_

She thought this just as the elevator crashed down. Without thinking anymore, she saw the blonde about to make a nasty fall, and decided to just jump at her and broke her fall.

Her arm hurt right away, but she kept her left arm around the blonde to keep her steady.

_That was close… Too close. It's a good thing it doesn't matter if I'm hurt anymore, I'm already broken anyways._

She stood up, helping the blonde as she did so.

She listened to the group of scared babies, but she just couldn't bring herself to be afraid. She was about to die anyways, whether in surgery or here, what difference did it make?

It was only when she saw the blonde close to tears after checking her phone, that she thought she had to do something. She didn't know what it was about her, but that girl deserved to get out of that hell-hole. So Santana would make sure at least that girl would get out. She stepped up when her decision was made, and got angry at the other idiots that were surrounding them.

"ALL OF YOU, BE QUIET!"

_END FLASHBACK_

* * *

><p>Quinn was in tears. She was looking at the Latina, who still refused to look up from where their hands were linked.<p>

"You… You had… You were… _dying_? And, for me…? Oh my god, I… I didn't…" She squeezed the girl's hands even tighter and took a moment to breathe and think.

She sniffed away a few tears before she went on… "But… How…? Why did you… go? Why… How… are you here?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry for only posting again this late! I'm working on a thesis and it is NOT going well. But I do really prefer working on the story, so I'll probably post another chapter somewhere today or tomorrow. I'm working towards the ending now, so I kind of feel like stopping right after she explains things, but I'm not sure if I should. My head is already working on another story, two actually, but I don't want to start them until I finish this one. Stopping the rant now, hope you enjoyed reading, cheers!**


	15. Chapter 15

Santana sighed at Quinn's question and squeezed the girl's hand again. The blonde was still crying about Santana's confession, but her tears were silent and her eyes were trained on the Latina in front of her, who still refused to look her in the eye.

She sighed again and went on with her story, trying to explain as much about everything to Quinn as possible.

* * *

><p><em>FLASHBACK<em>

Santana hadn't been able to stop thinking about Quinn the entire time they were walking. She was seriously happy they had gotten out of that elevator, but she wasn't really sure why she had done it. She had actually seriously done this for one girl, but now she was kind of getting cold feet.

_Was it really okay for me to take charge here? I mean, seriously, I don't know shit about this type of situation. It beats curling up in a corner and crying, though. Although I could have cuddled up to Quinn and died together with her, though… That would've been nice, maybe… NO! Lopez, no way you're thinking like this. The girl, no matter how cute and gorgeous she is, cannot die with you! Seriously, pity party much? She lives and finds an awesome girlfriend and gets a family and shit. Or boyfriend… Wow, she might not even be gay, what the hell am I thinking? Focus, Lopez, focus!_

She noticed Quinn's fidgeting and spoke to her about it.

_Did I just catch her staring at me? Nope, nuh-huh, not possible, not happening, she's tired, that's it._

"Okay guys, I think this would be as good a time and place as any to rest up a bit. We've been walking for like over 2 hours now, and some rest from all the friggin' rock-climbing wouldn't be bad. If you've got any water, share it, but be sparse! No need to die from dehydration."

As the others sat down together, she moved away from the group. They were all seriously getting friendly with each other, which was actually kind of nice, but she was the leader; she couldn't be a part of it. And besides, friendliness is _not_ a good thing right now.

She sat down on a rock a bit away from the others and looked at her own phone.

_Past two… I should be in surgery now… Translation: I might already've died right now. And, actually, twice too… Wow, Dios must really like me…_

Quinn came to sit with her, making Santana's heart flutter, but at the same time giving her the need to push the girl away.

_No, no, no, don't _care_ about me, that's not okay! I mean, fine, my hand hurts like hell and I feel like I'm in way over my head, but you can't… Wait, did she just say she knows how I feel? Oh, hell no!_

"You know, huh? Really?" She smiled sadly and shook her head. "So you've had the responsibility of 10 freaking other people on you often then, huh? You've had to weigh everything you did or said, because apparently you were their only hope?" _You've been told that you might die in only hours? You've met a girl that actually wants to care for you in those last hours and know that you should push her away, but that you don't want to at the same time? _"I don't think you get it Quinn!"

She was still angry as she looked away from the blonde, who was obviously thinking about what she had said. She hoped what she said would be enough to push Quinn away, but those thoughts were crashed as she felt a hand beneath her chin, forcing her to look up into beautiful hazel eyes.

Santana hardly even registered what Quinn was saying at that time, because she was too caught up in the other's gaze.

_She cares… She wants to care for me… Shouldn't I let her? Just for a bit? It would be nice, right_?

She drank just to please Quinn, but was startled when the other girl noticed her hand was in pain.

_Shit…_

Next thing she knew Quinn was taking care of her wrist, which kind of looked worse than Santana had thought – _not that it mattered, though_ – and broke down in tears.

Santana really didn't do tears, especially not on her behalf, so she made a decision.

"I said… You can take care of me… I kind of even think you're the only one who can right now. Just…" At this she looked into Quinn's eyes. She knew she was blushing, but she just couldn't help it."Just be around me throughout this thing, 'kay? That'll be enough for me." _For now. Be around me for now. After we get out of here, we'll go our separate ways…_

* * *

><p><em>STILL FLASHBACK, JUST A BIT LATER<em>

They were walking together at the head of the group, and Santana still had her head in the clouds after that hug she and Quinn shared.

_Best. Moment. Of my life. Or death, however you wanna see it._

Suddenly Quinn apparently decided it was time to start the game of "twenty questions" or something.

"Oh, hold up, how do we go from what's your favourite colour to what's your story?"

"Oh come on, we're way past that superficial stage already, right?"

"Fine then. What exactly do you want to know about my life?"

"Where are you from, what do you do in life, and why did you look like you were trying to be invisible just now?"

Santana looked at her in surprise. She did not see that last question coming.

She figured she would focus on the first two questions, and ignored the last one. She quickly explained about her home village and her job as a translator, but of course Quinn picked up on her avoidance of the other question straight away, so Santana started walking a bit faster.

_I can't… I can't tell her, no way! I need to lie, but how the hell do I lie when she goes all pouty-face on me… Shit!_

She didn't have time to think about it further, because they were at the end of the road… Literally…

_Shit, this isn't good…_ She froze in her steps. _No no no, this can't be happening. Q has got to get out of this place! Let's see…_

She heard Quinn cry behind her, and went on vigorously to try and find a way through, when she heard it again. A rumble…

She looked behind her and shouted at the others. They had to get to the good wall!

She dragged Quinn against it as chunks of rubble started falling from the ceiling, and quickly went back to pull in Ally and her friend. When she saw a crack right above were she had left Quinn, she felt fear and adrenaline surge through her veins.

_NO!_

She quickly moved over to the blonde and threw herself on top of her. Then she blacked out.

Next thing she knew, Frank was bending over her. Her back and ribcage in general hurt like hell, and she had serious difficulty breathing.

She made eye contact with Frank. He saw her trouble breathing as she lay on the floor, and the pain on her face. She immediately tried to mask her pain with a glare in his direction.

"Tell me Frank, how is she? Just tell me something!"

Frank shook his head at Santana.

"She's…"

"_Fine_!" Santana quickly shot in, hoarsely, as she sat up, still glaring at Frank, warning him not to say anything else.

_Fuck this hurts! But, no stress, the motto of this year is "broken anyways, man up, Lopez!". Or something like that… Shit, still on the floor, not good for the image… _

She put her hand on Frank's shoulder and made to stand up.

"Santana, maybe you shouldn't…" Frank tried to say, but a fierce glare from Santana shut him up.

He whispered to her. "_Santana, I know we've had our differences, but you condition_…"

Santana just simply shook her head "no" and pulled herself up. Frank knew he didn't have anything to say anymore, so he helped her. She immediately went over to Quinn, who, she was glad to find out, was fine, except for her shoulder.

Quinn quickly pulled her into a hug, crying, after Santana had made sure she was okay.

"I thought I… I thought we'd lost you!"

"I thought I'd lost you too…"

She locked eyes with the blonde, happy that the girl was alive, and got lost in the moment. A bit too lost…

_I don't want to die… I want to be with this girl… Why can't I be with her, why?_

She quickly checked herself, before she would break out into tears.

_Nope, not possible, no way, and you know it. She lives, you die, that's the way it is, no changing it. All you have to do is make sure she _lives_._

She stood up again and spoke to the others. She would find a way to get them out of here.

So she went to the side, checked out the wall, found the gap and tried going through it.

It was narrow, but doable. Her lungs hurt as she struggled to catch her breath, but nothing she couldn't help her.

She almost did a victory dance as she came around the corner and got out of the other end.

They still had a chance!

She could still get her out of here!

_END FLASHBACK_

* * *

><p>"And after that I found out… About part of it at least…" Quinn had spoken really softly, breaking Santana from her thoughts.<p>

She had paused a little while ago when she was thinking about how she was glad to get Quinn out of there.

"Yeah", Santana answered, "you found out I was pretty roughed up… You were so angry, I seriously thought you would explode." She frowned at the thought, but then her face relaxed into a smile. "It was pretty nice though, you taking care of me afterwards."

She glanced up into Quinn's eyes, a playful smirk on her face, which the blonde couldn't help but return as she herself thought back to that time. The place and situation weren't ideal, but she really did enjoy running her fingers across Santana's skin, and obviously Santana had enjoyed it as well. Then she thought of something else.

"Our discussion before that… That was the first time you cried after… everything, then?"

Santana looked down again. "Yeah… The whole 'I'm no superwoman'-thing… I really wanted to be though, you know, untouchable and stuff. 'Cause that was all I had… I would die after, and nothing would be left of me, so… Yeah…"

Quinn nodded and squeezed the girl's hand again. They sat in silence for a while, until Quinn felt the need to continue.

"So… When we found Hannah…"

Santana gave a lopsided smile again, her eyes focused on her lap.

"She deserved to leave as well. At that time I thought that if I could have it my way, I'd be the only one to die that day…"

"And when the beam fell…"

"It was me or you… Pretty easy choice, I'd say… I was dead anyways…"

"Why do you keep saying that?" Quinn's voice was filled with emotion. She understood Santana, to a certain extent, but she had never understood why the girl would give her life for her… Why the girl thought so little of her own life.

"I get that you thought you would die, but…"

"I didn't just _think_ I was gonna die, Q. I was really _dying_ at that time. I felt it everywhere, my head was thumping, I could hardly breathe…"

"But you didn't want to try and stay with me? You didn't even fight? Why were you so eager to leave me? Why did you go?"

She asked the question she had wanted to know the answer to for so long.

"I could have stayed by your side! I would have stayed by your side if you had let me. I would have gone to the hospital with you! I would have sat through your surgery! You should have let me!"

Santana stayed really calm as Quinn rambled on. Her answer to this question was very certain, she had known it the moment she had caught Quinn in that elevator.

She looked the blonde in the eyes. "It wouldn't have been fair, Quinn. To force you to sit through the surgery of a girl you'd only known a day? And yes-" she quickly went on as Quinn made to interrupt, "I know you lo- liked me enough to be willing to do that, but think about it… Watching me die would not have made you happy."

Quinn understood her in a way, but still… "But you're alive now, right? You're fine?"

Santana gave a dry laugh at that. "Yeah, I'm alive… _now_."

Quinn frowned at that. "What do you me-?"

Santana quickly cut her off. "How about I continue my story, y'know? Before we get into the gruesome details?" Her joke earned her a stern glare from Quinn, but the blonde did nod for her to continue.

* * *

><p><em>ANOTHER FLASHBACK<em>

"_A bar_…" They all went completely silent. "Signal… I have a signal!"

They all went crazy at that.

"Oh my god, don't move!" – "Shit, quick, sent the SOS!" – "Oh my god, let me see,… No wait, don't move, just… Oh my god!"

They were all crazy messes, and looked at Santana to silently ask her what to do.

The Latina scraped her throat. Her heart was beating loudly in excitement as well. "Try and sent the message. You changed it to 12 people and not in the elevator anymore, right?"

She was excited as Quinn said the message had gotten through, and joined the others in their excited rambling, but soon her mind was clouded again.

_12 survivors, huh? For now, yeah. But I won't last the day… Quinn won't be happy… How the hell do I pull this off?_

When they got to the staircase, they were hopeful again, and then they heard it. Some stupid Broadway-song: Quinn's phone.

Santana's heart started to beat rapidly as she heard Quinn's exited voice talking to her friend. Ideas on how she could get away from them were mauling around in her mind, but it was only when she heard Quinn get on the line with a policeman that she knew what to do, and determinedly she took over the phone.

Okay, listen up, copper. This isn't the time to use hard words of the police-lingo on us. We're tired, hurt, and seriously hungry. I'll tell you all you need to know, just let me do the talking for now, 'kay?"

The cop murmured a calm _"yes, of course_" at Santana's words, so Santana went and quickly explained the situation to him.

"Okay, so we've travelled from the elevator we were stuck in to the outer staircase that leads from the basement to the parking lot. We can't go up there, because the upper part of the stairway is blocked by rubble. There's 11 survivors, and pretty much all of them were hurt, so I suggest you bring a couple of ambulances here. Any questions?"

The cop answered some kind of okay and announced that someone would start cleaning up the rubble. She felt anxious now, and went to Quinn's side, locking eyes with the blonde.

She could see the question in Quinn's eyes.

_Did she notice me messing up the numbers?_

But then Quinn smiled, and grabbed Santana's hand as they stepped to the side.

When a bright light shone in on their closed of space, and they saw some kind of rescue worker step in, Santana felt her heart start beating.

She hung on tight to Quinn's hand, not wanting to let go, not yet.

But then they were led outside, and as the cold night air hit her, realization hit her as well.

_I have to let go now. She lives. They all live…_

_Time for me to die…_

* * *

><p><em><em>**A/N: So, I'm pretty sure this site hates me, because I keep trying to upload this chapter but it keeps uploading an older one for some reason, but ah well. Sorry for the dramatic ending, and sorry for all medical mistakes (especially in the following chapter). I'm no doctor, all I "know" comes from Grey's Anatomy and All Saints. So there.**


	16. Chapter 16

_STILL FLASHING BACK_

Santana was standing outside now, looking at the rubble. Her hand was still linked with Quinn's as the group took in their surroundings; the destructed building, the rescue workers, the line of people waiting behind a police line.

"_QUINN!_" She felt Quinn's hand tense, and looked where the voice had come from. The Latina could see a small brunette and a tall blonde struggling to get away from a police man, and over to where their friend was standing.

Santana could see Quinn smile happily, and felt her move away. But she stayed in place and let go of the other girl's hand.

She saw Quinn running forward, looking back for just a moment, and they locked eyes.

Santana smiled sadly.

_This is it. Last time you see her, Lopez. _

Quinn gave her another smile, and ran on towards her friends.

Santana moved away to the left as quickly as she could, even though she felt a coughing fit come up.

_Move it, move it, the coughs don't matter, just get the hell away from here before anyone notices!_

She looked behind her. The entire group had gone over to the police line, were nurses were waiting to take care of them. She saw Fran and Frank standing together beside an ambulance and couldn't help but smile as she ran on.

_Those two make a seriously cute couple… Going to the hospital together… God, I wish I could've… _

She quickly shook her head to get the thought out of her head, the movement not exactly helping her coughs as she finally reached the road. She could still hear the sirens of the ambulances, but at least she couldn't see them anymore.

And they couldn't see her.

Her legs slowed down. With her head thumping hard, she moved across the street, still roughed up, and called a cab.

When one finally pulled over, she nearly fell in the back seat. Last thing she heard was the driver ask her where she had to be.

She mumbled "Riverside Hospital". Then she fell into a deep slumber.

_END FLASHBACK_

"You took a cab, in that situation? When there were ambulances waiting for you? Are you out of your mind?" Quinn was looking at her with a shocked expression. "Did you _want_ to die?"

Santana sighed again. "I _was_ dying Quinn, I told you before. I just wanted to spare you the moment when I actually did die…"

Quinn was looking at her in silence, trying to understand the girl's actions, and at the same time encouraging her to go on. She knew the story wasn't done yet.

"I thought I died then, Q. I thought that was it, just me and some taxi driver who probably couldn't give a shit. But that wasn't it."

She started playing with the blonde's hand. "Apparently the guy freaked out when I'd gotten in, y'know, coughing blood all over his car and stuff. But the Frankenteen actually pulled through for me."

"Frankenteen?"

"Yeah, I met him afterwards. He's like, ridiculously large, and has this brain-dead look on his face, but, you know… Apparently I'm still here thanks to him. He told me the story himself, was pretty proud of it apparently."

"So, what happened?" Quinn was pretty anxious to know. This was the gap in Santana's history the blonde had been trying to fill.

"He raced to the hospital. When he got there, he apparently ran into the emergency like a madman, saying how this chick was dead in his backseat and all. So the doctors ran out, and some nurse suddenly recognised me as brain-tumour-girl, so they quickly brought me in for surgery."

Santana breathed in deeply, and clasped Quinn's hand even tighter.

"I… They tell me that,… a couple of hours into surgery, something happened. I mean, I was already having lung-problems 'cause of a broken rib, which didn't exactly get better, and then I started… haemorrhaging… y'know… Bad stuff. And my heart couldn't really keep up. So I… died…"

Quinn's hand started squeezing Santana's so tightly that the Latina thought she'd never be able to move it again, but she didn't say anything about it.

"You… died?" _I… lost her?_

Santana nodded. Some tears visible in her eyes.

"Yeah… My heart stopped, but… after a while, they got it going again. I was dead for just under 3 minutes. Then they got it back to beating, but I…"

"You weren't back…" Quinn felt her own tears stream down her face again as she saw Santana struggling to keep her own face straight.

The blonde couldn't take it anymore, she removed her hand from the Latina's and pulled the girl in for a hug.

Santana hid her face in Quinn's neck as she started sobbing. She was mumbling through her sobs, but Quinn didn't understand any of it. Her heart just broke for the usually so strong girl.

When her cries died down, Santana shifted her head a bit so that she was still leaning into Quinn, but she could at least be understood.

"Ap-Apparently I had… brain damage. Serious damage… I went into a coma. Some of my friends came by to see me, but even they… they thought I was dead… They were devastated."

Quinn took in the information. "What about your parents?"

Santana huffed. "They kicked me out when I was 17. When Puck – my best friend – called them, they pretty much said that I had it coming, for being gay and shit."

Quinn couldn't believe it. She was angry at those people. _Their own daughter is dying, and they don't want to see her? If I'd had the chance-_

Santana felt her tense up, and moved up a bit so she could look Quinn in the eyes.

"Don't worry about it, Q. It's fine. I don't see them as my parents anymore anyways."

"That doesn't make it fine, San!" She was still angry, but her voice sounded more defeated than furious.

"I know, Q, but it doesn't matter. When I woke up, they called my friends, and they were there, so… It was fine…"

Quinn looked her in the eyes. "But _I_ wanted to be there for you." Santana could see her eyes tear up again and quickly reached out to cup her face between her two hands, leaning in so close that their noses were almost touching.

Santana whispered: "_I know…_ I wanted you there too…" A lone tear escaped her eyes. "I told you at the mall, didn't I? You're the only one… who can take care of me."

They gazed into each other's eyes as the words sunk in. They could feel each other's breaths on their faces, and Quinn felt like she was being sucked into Santana's eyes. Their lips came together in a soft kiss, and the blonde whimpered.

It had been too long. They'd wanted to do this an entire year, and now it felt like they were coming home.

Quinn brought her hands up to cup Santana's cheeks in her own as their kiss deepened, stroking away the tears that were there.

When they were out of breath, they broke the kiss, but they didn't want to let go of each other just yet, so they rested their foreheads against each other.

Santana gave a lopsided smile as she tried to catch her breath.

"So…"

Quinn smiled back at her. "So?"

"It's almost Valentine's Day…"

Quinn's heart started beating faster, but she could swear that she heard Santana's heart rate go up as well.

"… Yeah?"

Santana slid her fingers down the blonde's cheeks to under her chin, and she tilted her head up, locking eyes with her once more.

"Would you like to go out on a date with me?"

Quinn smiled widely now, one of those 100-watt smiles that completely lit up her face.

"I' d love to…" She leaned back to kiss Santana once more… She could never get tired of this.

* * *

><p><em>EPILOGUE<em>

"Hey guys!" Quinn stepped into the bar.

"Quinn!" "Quinnie!" Rachel and Brittany shouted out as the blonde stopped at their table.

"You have a _lot_ of explaining to do, young lady!", Rachel said as they all sat down again, a playful angry look on her face.

"I don't know what you're talking about", Quinn smiled as she gave the waiter her order.

"Don't be like that, Quinnie!", Brittany pouted, "We haven't seen you for days! All you've done is send us a text saying that 'everything went fine with Santana', and that we would see you _after _ Valentine's Day. What happened!"

Quinn smiled even brighter at the memory of Valentine's day. She and Santana had just gone on a simple date with dinner and a movie, but she still thought it was the best date she'd ever had.

"I…", she drew out the sound long enough to make both Rach and Britt annoyed, "… had a date."

Her two friends smiled like Cheshire cats at the admission, and Brittany nudged her playfully.

"So… I'm taking it everything went well with Santana?"

"Well…" Quinn glanced up over Rachel's shoulder and smiled even brighter.

"I'd say everything went _great_ with Santana." The voice came from behind the two friends, who snapped their heads around swiftly.

Quinn quickly got up and pulled the Latina in for a kiss. The other girls' eyes became big as saucers.

Quinn and Santana couldn't help but laugh at their expressions. They shot each other a loving gaze.

Best. Valentine's Day. Ever.

_THE END_

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: So, that was it! This might seem like a sudden ending, but I couldn't help it. My story was pretty much about the excitement of the basement-problem and then them finding each other again, and I just didn't want to stretch out the story line. So, I hope you liked it, and maybe I'll see you in another story soon!**_


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